


Taken

by Mu_fangirl



Category: ATEEZ (Band), Golden Child (Korea Band), NCT (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band), The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Abduction, Aftermath of Torture, All five are main characters, Blood and Injury, Every member will appear here and some other guest from other groups, Gen, Hospitalization, Hurt, Kidnapping, Near Death Experiences, Pain, Strangulation, Torture, Trauma, Violence, Whipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:48:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29655006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mu_fangirl/pseuds/Mu_fangirl
Summary: They were supposed to go to the beach, they should be enjoying the view, the breeze, the food, and the beach itself especially right now.Yet, everything went down hill since the moment two black vans intercepted their car.OrWooyoung, Haknyeon, Mark, Jaehyun, and Dino were kidnapped on their way to their supposedly happy trip.
Comments: 62
Kudos: 85





	1. The Start

A boy jogged up to a group of people who were most likely to be his friends. He swung his arm around one of them as soon as he stood by them.

That friend, dressed in grey t-shirt and dark blue jeans, looked at him and smiled which was gladly being returned before he went back focusing on doing something to his backpack.

Some of them were seen shivering a little, could be because of the strong wind or perhaps because of the remaining from the winter that had barely passed.

Yet, that didn't stop them from going to whatever place they were about to go to.

"Everyone's here?" asked that boy

"Yup, Mark, Dino, Wooyoung, you, Haknyeon ah and me" said another boy who was standing across him, popping the 'p' sound.

The five boys piled up next to a grey car, anyone could tell from their expressions that they were excited.

"Well Jaehyun ah, technically, not everyone is here... Changbin and Woojin wouldn't be joining us" said the boy who was previously roaming through his backpack beside Haknyeon.

"I know that Wooyoung ah, I'm just saying that everyone who agreed to go is here already" said Jaehyun

"Oh I was just saying.." said Wooyoung

"Anyway, since everyone's here.. Let's get going, shall we?" 

"Let's go!!" said the rest of them excitedly.

As many fans had probably known this, the 99 line 'gang' was quite famous in the industry since it consisted of many famous male idols.

The members were Haknyeon from The Boyz, Jaehyun from Golden Child, Wooyoung from Ateez, Dino from Seventeen, Changbin from Stray Kids, Woojin from AB6IX, and their newest member, Mark from NCT. Actually there were more but these seven were the most active ones, more like the inner circle ones.

Jaehyun and Haknyeon were practically the ones who started this whole friendship thing as they had originally been friends since their trainee days. Then the others began to come along through the many encounters, like from music shows and some were actually being introduced through a mutual friend. For example, Haknyeon met Dino through Seungkwan and Wooyoung was introduced to Jaehyun by Youngtaek.

It started from a simple group chat that escalated into, casual hang outs, eating out, going to fun places, and stuff.

However, since they all were super busy and their schedules clashed with one another more often than not so it was rather hard to hang out all together in one occasion.

The last time they went out all together was last year when Mark hadn't joined them yet and even right now, not all members were present.

With that being said, the only available members right at this moment were Wooyoung, Haknyeon, Jaehyun, Dino, and Mark.

So the plan was to go to the beach and spend the night there. They even rented a car, big enough for 5 of them to fit.

As for the driving task, Jaehyun was the one who got the pleasure to do it considering that he was the only one with a driving license.

"Wish they both could come with us too" said Wooyoung

"Yeah, would be more fun that way" said Jaehyun as he made a left turn.

"Let's call them" said Mark, pulling out his phone.

Talking about the sitting order, Haknyeon was sitting in the front, next to Jaehyun. Meanwhile at the back seat, Mark was sitting on the middle with Wooyoung on his left and Dino on his right.

"Yeah, let's video call them" said Dino

Mark put his phone up in the air, the front camera was on. Changbin and Woojin answered on the same time.

"Yo Changbin? Woojin?" called Mark

"Hey, Mark" said Changbin on the other line.

"Yo what's up" said Woojin

"What are you guys up to right now?" asked Dino

"I'm shooting someting right now, currently on thirty minutes break" said Woojin

"This early?" asked Haknyeon from the front seat.

"It's 8 a.m, dude" said Woojin

"Still," responded Haknyeon even though he himself had done shootings that took time even more early than 8 a.m.

Those shootings were one of his hardest times.

"Well, good luck and fighting!!" cheered Mark

"Thanks, bro" said Woojin

"Meanwhile me, in the middle of a recording session with Chan hyung and Jisung" said Changbin

"You too, keep fighting!!" said Mark

"And take a good care of yourselves too" said Haknyeon

"I really wish I could come with you all" said Changbin

"We'll take amazing pictures for you" said Wooyoung

"Thank you, Wooyoung" said Changbin

"Hopefully we'll be able to go together, the seven of us, in the future" said Jaehyun

"Yeah hopefully" said Woojin

"Sorry guys, I gotta go.. Talk to you later.. Be safe and have fun" said Changbin

"Me too, have a lot of fun guys" said Woojin

"Be safe too, we'll call you again later some time in the evening" said Mark before hitting the end call button.

"It's truly a pity that we're not complete but that aside, I'm really excited right now.. It's my first trip with friends of my age" said Mark, clapping his hands.

"Me too, me too.. It's gonna be so much fun!!" squealed Dino, he and Mark did high-fives repeatedly like happy kids.

"Well Haknyeon and I have been on trip like this, countless time but it'll be more fun with more people" said Jaehyun, glancing at them through the rear view mirror.

"Yeah, remember how we used to get in trouble by doing this?" asked Haknyeon

"Good old times" said Jaehyun and they laughed.

"I heard the stories" said Dino

"Haknyeon ah, can you turn on the radio?" asked Wooyoung, "We should sing happy songs at times like this"

Time seemed to pass quickly because an hour and a half later, though it only felt like twenty minutes for them, they were almost at the beach. Their car was currently passing a quiet street just by the ocean view.

Dino opened the window beside him, letting the breeze greet their skins.

"Should I wake him up now?" asked Wooyoung

"No, let him sleep a little more so he would be fully awake later" said Jaehyun

Haknyeon had fallen asleep thirty minutes ago despite the loud noises they all were making, boy must have been so tired from yesterday.

In front of them laid two ways, one was straight and the other was a left turn. Jaehyun drove straight, passing by the left turn.

After he passed it, two black vans actually drove out from that turn, now driving up on the same direction as them.

It was hard not to notice the big black vans on this empty street but he just focused back on the road ahead of him.

At the beginning nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary till without any warning, the first van sped up. 

It overtook their car and caught Jaehyun slightly by surprise because the van so close from scratching their rental car.

He would prefer to return it still intact with no scratches, thank you.

"The hell just happened?" asked Jaehyun, "Don't people learn how to drive?"

"Just let it go" said Dino

Yeah, Jaehyun planned to. He thought that it was just a common person being rude.

Until,

The van who drove over them with a quick speed abruptly made a rough turn as the driver probbaly slammed the steering wheel and, like that it just stopped few meters in front of them, blocked the whole road before them.

Credits went to Jaehyun's fast reflexes, he had to hit the brakes with all his might and turn the steering wheel to the left slightly because if he was late for two seconds, he was sure a crash was inevitable.

The scene was just like what you saw in movies when the police tried to stop the escaping bad guys, the difference was it was no movie and Jaehyun was about to give someone a talk about what the hell you think you're doing.

Due to the sudden halt, it had sent their bodies almost flying to the front, good thing they wore seatbelts.

"Woah!" yelped Mark

"I'm sorry, it's because of them" said Jaehyun

"What happened?!" asked Haknyeon who was awakened roughly.

"What the hell is this?" asked Jaehyun, pissed but he wasn't the only one.

He had every right to be pissed, he almost sent the five of them into a hospital had he didn't hit the brake in time.

"That car suddenly stopped without warning" said Dino to Haknyeon

"You guys are alright?" asked Jaehyun

"Yeah, we're fine.. Don't worry" said Wooyoung

The black van behind them also stopped, "Punch the horn Jae" said Wooyoung and the latter did so but the van didn't move. 

One way to see this was that they were trapped between two black vans with no escape way, they couldn't go left or right either.

Jaehyun was about to lower his window so he could talk to whoever in that van before the van's doors that were facing them were opened and men dressed in all black walked out.

But that wasn't what stole their attentions. The fact that those four men were wearing black ski masks with guns on their hands did.

"W-w-what is happening?" asked Mark, aware of the not so great situation.

"Look! More of them are coming out from that van too" said Wooyoung, referring to the van behind them.

"Dino ya, call 119 right now.." said Jaehyun without looking at him.

"O..okay.." said Dino

"Don't put it next to your ears, put it on your laps so they wouldn't see it... Quick!" said Jaehyun 

"Tell the dispatcher that our car was stopped by uknown armed men then tell them our location" said Jaehyun

"Okay.." said Dino

"Are they car hijackers?" asked Haknyeon

"If.. if that so, may..maybe if we just give them the car, they would leave us?" suggested Mark

"We don't know that" said Wooyoung

"Hello?! Please help us!" said Dino as soon as the line was connected.

Without wasting more time, Dino quickly did as Jaehyun instructed him to.

"Get out of the car!" 

One of the men spoke to them loudly, his voice was heavy and authoritative, it startled them that Dino dropped his phone.

"Just let it be" said Wooyoung when Dino tried to pick his phone up.

"Don't make a sudden move guys" said Mark, they couldn't do that, not with the guns at their directions.

Thankfully they could hear the dispatcher saying that she was sending police units as she spoke.

"Please be hurry..." half-yelled Dino

They only wish the police would arrive in time, inside they were praying to whoever listening to help them just this once.

"What should we do?" asked Mark

However the man spoke again, "Step out or my men will take a shoot" his tone was the same, not even raised or lowered an octave.

They believed that considering the guns were already pointed at their car, just need one wrong move and they would end up with holes on their bodies.

"Jaehyun ah, what should we do?" asked Haknyeon

Fear filled their eyes, no one had ever been in this kind of situation before.

"Let's just do as they say first" said Jaehyun

"Are you sure?" asked Dino, he could hear the lady on the phone telling them the otherwise.

"Do you want to wait and find out whether they're gonna shoot at us or not instead?" asked Jaehyun, he wasn't sure of what to do either but he thought his decision was the best.

"The police will be here soon, we just need to hang on until then" said Mark

They were too distracted at themselves to notice the man giving a signal his man beside him and the next thing they knew was a loud sound of bang pricked through their ears.

A gun was fire, but thankfully it was aimed at the air but maybe they wouldn't be so lucky next time.

"Al..alright let's go.." said Wooyoung

Jaehyun was the first one to open his door followed by Haknyeon and then the rest.

One of the men had his gun pointed closely at them, guiding them to stand in a line few meters in front of their car.

"You can take the car and everything in it but let us go, please" said Wooyoung

Jaehyun pushed Mark and Haknyeon who were standing on each of his sides slightly to behind his back, he knew he couldn't do much but he'd still try to protect his friends.

"We didn't see your faces and we won't fight you so no need for blood to be spilled" said Jaehyun

"But that's not the plan, boys" said the man

"What do you mean?" asked Dino, frowning

A loud smack was heard next as Wooyoung who was standing at the very end dropped to the hard ground unconscious.

No time for them to react as their visions were replaced by darkness along with the stinging pain on the back of their head.

"Do whay you gotta do, boys" said the man, walking back to the van.

"What about the car, boss?" asked one of the man

"Burn it" said the man without looking back.

.

.

.

To be continued


	2. Setting An Example

Groaning, that was the first sound Mark made as he began to regain his consciousness back.

When he opened his eyes, he didn't need adjust them to anything since dark was all he saw, just a dim light from the old lamp hanging down from the ceiling, barely illuminating the room.

"You okay Mark?" 

Mark turned his head to the source of the voice, "Dino?"

"Yeah it's me" said Dino, "You okay?"

"My head..... hurts a little, you?" asked Mark

"Same" said Dino, "Pretty sure we can blame those people for it"

As Mark sat up, he glanced around only to find Haknyeon still unconscious on the floor while the rest of them had woken up.

"Where are we?" asked Mark

"If only I know.." said Wooyoung

"Mark, touch the back of your head and feel if there's blood" said Jaehyun

"Uhm...no? I didn't feel any liquid" said Mark

"Okay that's good" said Jaehyun

"How long have you all woken up?" asked Mark

"I'm first, maybe ten minutes ago" said Dino

"Maybe 7 minutes then Jaehyun woke up after me" said Wooyoung

Mark scouted closer to them. None of them had their jackets on and it was pretty cold here.

"My phone.." uttered Mark

"Gone, ours too" said Dino

They all sat together on the hard and cold floor but their eyes wandered around. "Looks like an old bedroom?" guessed Mark, inspecting the room.

"Really old and smelly mattress, an old chair, weathered wood, yeah likely..... A very very old bedroom" said Wooyoung

"What could be behind that door?" asked Mark

"Probably the bad guys" said Jaehyun, "I've checked, it's locked" 

"How about that door?" asked Mark, pointing to another one.

"Bathroom, though I'm not sure if it's allowed to be called that again" said Wooyoung, "Anyway, fortunately the water works" 

Their attention was turned to Haknyeon who was waking up too and seeing that made Jaehyun stand up and go to him.

"How are you feeling?" asked Jaehyun as he helped Haknyeon sat up.

"Like I just got hit at the back of my head?" said Haknyeon, wincing as he touched his nape.

"Yeah, me too" said Jaehyun, chuckling

They all sat really close to each other, trying to share the warmth. Obviously no heater in the room, no windows too.

"How long do you think we passed out?" asked Haknyeon

"I really couldn't tell, I didn't even know if it's night or day right now" said Mark

There was no way they could tell what time it was.

"What will happen to us?" asked Mark, he never thought that he would actually experience being kidnapped.

"I.. I don't know.." said Wooyoung, a hint of frustation in his voice.

"Why us?" asked Dino, "How did they even know that we were going to the beach?" 

"Could it be someone from our company?" asked Mark, "I did inform my manager about our trip...."

"Me too" said Dino

"Yeah, I think all of us do and it still doesn't narrow it down" said Haknyeon

"I'm really sorry guys, this is all my fault" said Jaehyun

"No, Why would you say that?" asked Haknyeon, he didn't like his bestfriend going into self-blaming mode.

"I'm the one who suggested the idea of going to the beach.. If.. If I didn't do that, we wouldn't have been here" said Jaehyun, looking down.

A tear rolled down his face, the guilt hit him hard. He was also the one who told them to get off the car, if only they stayed longer then maybe they could have seen the police arriving.

"Don't blame yourself, Jaehyun ah" said Wooyoung, "We shall not do that in this situation"

"Yeah, right now we all need to be strong and figure out the way to escape from here" said Dino

"Dino's right" said Wooyoung but could they really do that?

"It's not your fault, my friend" said Haknyeon as he hugged Jaehyun

They heard footsteps coming closer, "I'm scared.." said Mark

Who wasn't, right?

The locked door was opened and five men walked inside, still wearing masks and still holding guns and some other stuffs.

"I see you all are awake" 

It was the same voice as before so he was most likely to be the man in charge.

Those men were way bigger than them so likely, they wouldn't stand a chance when it came to fight them empty handed.

"What do you want from us?" asked Jaehyun, braving himself up.

"No chit chat, good, let's get straight to business" said the man

"You see, I didn't kidnap the five of you without any reason because that would be a waste of time, right?" then he laughed but they didn't find that funny.

The man pulled the chair before them and took a seat.

"I'm sure y'all have seen movies about abduction" said the man, "What is the most thing kidnappers ask from the family of the people they take?" 

"Money, right?" asked the man

At this point, he was just talking alone since the five boys were too scared and too disgusted at him to reply.

"I am the same too but instead of your families, I intend to collect from your agencies" said the man. "Right now, no one knows that you're abducted so I want you tell them" 

"Hey set the camera" said the man to one of the men behind him.

"Yes boss" replied that man.

"Do as I say and you all will see the light again just fine" said the man

"And what if we don't?" asked Wooyoung

"Easy, I will make you face a harsh consequences" scoffed the man.

They couldn't see his face but they knew for sure that a smirk was present there as he spoke.

Whilst his man was still setting the camera, he rose from the chair and walked closer to them.

"Now, I want to set an example for you and for your agencies... Who's feeling like a volunteer?" asked the man

Of course silence was all he got, "No one?" 

"How about you, pretty boy?" asked the man, "Bong Jaehyun...... From what my men told me, your parents are pretty rich"

So they had done some researches on them and it just made the whole thing become more creepy.

"No!!" the strong rejection came from Haknyeon while the rest started to put an arm on Jaehyun, like preventing him from pulling the boy by force.

"Alright then, how about you, fiercy boy? Let's start from you" said the man

"No!" this one came from Jaehyun.

If Haknyeon's tone was full of fear and shock, Jaehyun's was way more compose than that. Well at least he tried to make it sound that way.

"I'll do it" said Jaehyun

"What?! No! Jaehyun ah" protested Haknyeon

"Haknyeon ah, better me than any of you" said Jaehyun

"No.." said Mark, tears were running down his face.

"It's okay, I will be fine" said Jaehyun, "They won't kill me" 

"Jaehyun ah.." said Wooyoung but he didn't know what to say. "No, please.." said Dino, his voice was shaking.

But they all were too scared.

"I'll do it" said Jaehyun, standing up.

Haknyeon tried to stop him but Wooyoung held him back which of course recieved a struggle. 

"They will hurt you too Haknyeon ah, I'm sorry" said Wooyoung, keeping his arms tight around the Jeju boy.

"Jaehyun ah.." called Haknyeon hopelessly.

Dino and Mark was holding each other, they didn't know what would happen to Jaehyun but 'the example' that man wanted to make couldn't possibly be good.

And don't get Wooyoung wrong, he wanted to stop Jaehyun too but guns were pointed at them. If they made a wrong move, he was afraid that they would really use it.

The other man made Jaehyun walk to the center of the room then he made him kneel down. 

"The camera is on, boss" said the previous man.

"Good, bring that to me" said the man but he meant no camera.

Another man walked up to 'the boss' and handed him something.

"It... It's a.. whip.." muttered Dino out of disbelief, he knew what would happen next and it scared him to death, it scared all of them to death.

The man was holding a long whip on his right hand as he stood close to Jaehyun.

His friends were crying messes and Jaehyun desperately wanted to cry too but he had to be strong for them, he had to.

The man swung the whip hard and it hit the floor, making a really loud sound and sending shivers down to their spine. Jaehyun's heart beat faster, almost feeling like it's gonna jump anytime soon.

"Please no.." begged Haknyeon, sobbing hard. He was about to witness his bestfriend being lashed right before his eyes.

Jaehyun looked at his friends and smiled, "It's okay" mouthed him. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, he was determined not to make a sound.

Enough terrors that they were experiencing already, they didn't need more. He needed to show him that he couldn't break them that easy.

Then the first lash came, it hit his back hard and sent him falling down forward. For a second, all Jaehyun saw was stars swimming around in his vision. 

Screams of shock from the other four filled the room instead while laughters came from the boss and his men.

At least he succeded in making no sound, something he could be proud of.

Jaehyun got back up again, he could definitely take more as long as the man didn't do it to the rest of his friends.

When the second lash came, it was stronger than before and yet, he was still able to seal his mouth shut despite the burning sensation on his back.

His could taste blood from his own lips as he bit them real hard, his back felt sore but he tried to ignore the poignant sensation there.

The man walked to other side and lashed him again, it hit his chest and his arms.

However, it was the tenth lash when Jaehyun couldn't hold his scream back any longer, his lips were bleeding since he bit it so hard in order to swallow his screams and the whip even ripped his white t-shirt a little.

" _AKKKHHH!!_ " choked Jaehyun out reflexively as the leather strap tore his smooth skin.

His skin was covered in long red marks everywhere, some were bleeding, some were just really red.

"Jaehyun ah!!" yelled the rest

"I know you're strong Jaehyun ah, you are strong" said Wooyoung, he didn't care anymore about wiping his own tears off.

Jaehyun still got back up again, his skin was lacerated, many linear wounds from the whip, and he was barely aware of his surroundings anymore.

All he could think was pain.

The next lash sent Jaehyun into a screaming terror as it accidentally hit his open wound.

He was feeling faint from all the pain, breathing was something that became a hard thing to do.

Stay strong, he tried to hang on to those words, barely.

"Please, that's enough!!" screamed Dino but why would the man listen to him?

"You psycho son of a bitch! Stop!!" yelled Mark

Even though Jaehyun was shouting, he still took the next seven lashes like a champ. 

The word 'stop' hadn't yet left his mouth.

The last whip hit his head strong that sent him falling down immediately again but this time he couldn't got up anymore. 

His eyes were barely open, lips were apart slightly to help him absorb the air, face was wet with tears, blood smeared his clothes, and a lot of fresh wounds on his upper body. That last whip even scratched his face a little.

And just like that he left Jaehyun there, tossing the whip aside and walked to the rest four. He suddenly pulled Dino by force that the rest couldn't even do anything about it or even had the chance to stop him.

"Let him go!!" yelled Wooyoung that fell into a deaf ears.

The man dragged Dino roughly to where Jaehyun was laying and shoved him to the floor. Dino tried to dodge but the man threw him right at Jaehyun, crashing his weight down on the wounded boy. 

Of course Dino quickly moved away, "I'm so sorry Jaehyun ah" said Dino but Jaehyun was on the threshold of consciousness to reply, he only heard his whimpers.

His friend looked so much worse from close and it made him shed more tears.

"Now read this" said the man as he tossed a piece of paper at him.

"Exactly those words and if you subtract or add even just one word, I'll whip him more or maybe I'll try it on you and I'll make your other friends read this, understood?" said the man

"Y-y-yes.." said Dino

"Now read it while looking at the camera" said the man, "Remember, don't try something funny" warned him.

Dino closed his eyes, took a really deep breath, then he stared at the paper before at the camera.

"Wooyoung from Ateez, Dino from Seventeen, Jaehyun from Golden Child, Haknyeon from The Boyz, and Mark from NCT are now my hostages. If you..."

Dino had to take a pause, his voice began to tremble as his eyes scanned the rest of the sentence.

"If you ever want to... see them alive again, the five companies must pay a total amout of..."

Dino took a pause again and it made the man became impatient. The man swung the whip and it hit Jaehyun again, visibly startling Dino.

Jaehyun let out an agonizing whimper yet he could only lay there helplessly.

Being so close to Jaehyun, to see the lashing very closely, the terror was portrayed on his eyes. Dino quickly and shakingly went back to talk again, he had to do it right for his friend's sake.

"Ten billion won.." 

More tears escaped Dino eyes, that was a really large amount of money.

"All five companies have four days, counting down the moment you receive this video... You must put the money in two bags and I will tell you later where to stash the money"

"You can call the police but it's.. not like they could help with anything.."

The fact that their kidnappers made him say that meant that they were confident that even police couldn't do anything and it scared them more, like they could even get more scared than they already were.

"Do as we say then they will be fine but if you try something stupid.... The next video will show you an example of the consequences"

The further he read, the harder he cried. Not just him actually but also the rest of them, even Jaehyun who was still lying helplessly.

"If something goes wrong, I will make sure that you will find them buried in the ground few years later with only bones left..." 

Dino sobbed loudly, he didn't want to die. The paper slipped away from his hand as his body shook.

His man ended the recording and took the camera outside.

After that they just left them there but not before the boss saying, "Make yourself comfortable because this will be the place you be at for the next four days or until I get my money" then he slamed the door closed and locked it.

It took them another five seconds to calm themselves down before they ran to their wounded friend.

"Jaehyun ah!" cried Haknyeon

They tried to be careful with him, trying not to touch the wound which was impossible. 

"You're okay.. you're okay.." said Wooyoung but really, it was all sweet words only because Jaehyun was far from being fine.

"Mark, go to the bathroom and see if you can bring clean water here, we need to clean his wound..." ordered Wooyoung

"Alright" said Mark, wasting no more time to run to the bathroom.

"Let's move him to the mattress" said Haknyeon and the rest nodded.

Wooyoung tried to turn Jaehyun's body around but it made the boy whimpered in pain. Every move was painful for Jaehyun.

"Shall we just lay him face down? He got more wounds on his back" said Dino

"Alright, slowly.." said Wooyoung

Wooyoung put his hands under Jaehyun's thighs and stomach while Haknyeon slipped his hands under Jaehyun's chest and stomach, and Dino slipped his hands under Jaehyun's legs.

"One... two... three" counted Wooyoung

Although they were moving really slow, Jaehyun was a moaning pain.

"Just a little more buddy" said Haknyeon

Mark came back with an old bowl on his hand, "The bowl has a leak but it's small, it shall do good enough though" said Mark

"Bring it here" said Wooyoung and Mark put the bowl filled with water next to him.

Without warning, Wooyoung ripped off his left sleeve. "What are you doing Wooyoung ah?" asked Mark

"We need clean cloth to wash his wounds and I can't think of anything else" said Wooyoung

Whimpers kept escaping Jaehyun's lips, "We're gonna clean your wounds, Jae, it's gonna hurt a bit" said Haknyeon

"Do it" said Haknyeon to Wooyoung

Fortunately the wounds weren't deep since those were the results of a whip.

"My...body...hurts.." whispered Jaehyun, he seemed to be more awake than before.

Wooyoung started to wipe the wet cloth on Jaehyun's wounds, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry.." chanted Wooyoung as Jaehyun winced.

Jaehyun even had to squeezed Mark's hand. "Hurts.. hurts.. aakkhh" sobbed Jaehyun

"Just a little more.." said Dino, "Just a little more.."

Jaehyun felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier and the last thing he remembered was feeling like falling into darkness.

  
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None of them was able to catch any sleep, Jaehyun was unconscious, though not sure if it was counted as sleep.

Jaehyun was laying on his side with the rest making sure that he didn't accidentally fell on his back.

They still trying to make sense of everything because this almost felt like a really really bad dream.

"Don't worry, as soon as our companies pay them, we'll be set free" said Wooyoung

"But... 10 billion is a lot of money and four days are a short period of time" said Mark

"They will pay, right?" asked Haknyeon

"Of course" said Wooyoung

"Jaehyun ah? How are you feeling?" asked Dino, seeing that his friend's eyes were now opened.

"I'm fine.." said Jaehyun

"Like hell you are" said Haknyeon

"I will be fine Haknyeon ah, don't worry too much" said Jaehyun

"I'm glad to see you smiling, Jae" said Wooyoung

"Yeah me too" said Jaehyun, "Don't worry, our companies will pay the ransom"

"How'd you know?" asked Mark

"Faith.." shrugged Jaehyun but quickly regretted because pain hit him as soon as he moved.

"You're right, we must have faith on them" said Dino

"But you guys are okay, right?" asked Jaehyun

"Us? You should look at yourself" said Haknyeon, "I'm so worried about you"

"I know but I'm glad that at least they didn't hurt you" said Jaehyun

The truth was they all knew that all of them would get hurt, just a matter of when.

"We can get through this, I have faith on all of us" said Wooyoung

"So do we" said Mark

.

.

.

To be continued


	3. Finding Out Part 1

"How is he?" asked Wooyoung

"He's in and out, he just fell asleep out of exhaustion five minutes ago" said Haknyeon

Sleep at the moment was something they couldn't do yet they needed the most so they had to force themselves to at least close their eyes.

After few hours, they agreed to take turns on sleeping. Someone had to keep an eye on both Jaehyun and the bad guys, just incase they decided to do something again.

Haknyeon took the first turn and he was supposed to be awake for another half an hour when Wooyoung joined him. Dino and Mark were still sleeping while hugging each other, maybe if there was a good result from all of this, that would be the two of them getting really close with each other.

Then again, there were a whole lot more ways for them to get close, definitely way better than this.

"His condition concerns me, it's dirty here and he could get an infection" said Wooyoung

"I know, me too.." said Haknyeon, "But he'll survive four days, he has to... He is my strong best friend" said Haknyeon, smiling.

Seeing that made Wooyoung smile too, their friendship was indeed pure.

"Where we could be huh?" asked Haknyeon

"An old abandoned house, perhaps?" answered Wooyoung with another question 'cause he didn't know.

The floor was wooden and so were the walls, there were no windows at all and probably why the room felt more suffocating, besides from the strong musty smell.

"There's a good chance we're not in the city anymore.." said Haknyeon, trailing off.

"Yeah, my guess too.." said Wooyoung

"We can't even scream for help" said Haknyeon, afraid if doing that might lead to another 'punishment'. 

"We have to think of something else" said Wooyoung, "If this an old wooden house, there might be holes that we can peek through"

"Wooyoung ah.." called Haknyeon, there was a hesitation in his voice.

"Yes?" asked Wooyoung

"Are they really gonna let us go once the ransom has been paid?" asked Haknyeon

"I... don't know.." admitted Wooyoung, "I don't know Haknyeon ah..."

"Well, at least if we're going to die.. I'm glad I can die right next to my friends" said Haknyeon, he'd like to see the bright sides of everything.

Wooyoung stared at him, "....me too..." said Wooyoung

"Just wish we could say goodbye to our family" said Wooyoung

"Me too.." said Haknyeon

Their conversation died off soon after, embracing the silence as they became busy with their own thoughts.

__________________________________________________

  
"Oh yes hyung, I'm almost home.. I'm getting off from the lift as we speak" said a man who was holding his phone next to his right ear.

"No, manager hyung went straight back to the company building"

"Oh crap! I'm really sorry Taeil hyung.. I forgot to buy it" said the man as he clasped his hand against his forehead.

"I can go back and buy it now.... No? Are you sure?..... Alright then, I'll be there in five minutes.. Okay see you soon hyung" said the man

As the man approached the place he called home, he could faintly see a small package on the ground, wrapped in a brown envelope.

When he finally reached the door, he picked it up and examined it, trying to search for any clue that might tell him who sent it or who it was for.

It was the size of A4 paper and it was light.

On the back of the envelope, he could see their address written there but that was it so he just went inside with the package on his hands, maybe his members would know.

"I'm home.." announced the man.

He passed the hallway and went straight to the kitchen, wanting a glass of water, where he corssed paths with one of the people he lived with.

"Oh you're home, Taeyong hyung" 

"Yup, didn't you hear me walking in?" asked the man who was Lee Taeyong, the leader of NCT 127

"No" said the younger, shaking his head.

"Oh.." said Taeyong, putting the package down on the table beside his bag.

"What is that?" asked the younger

"I don't know, I found it at our door.. It has our address" said Taeyong, "By the way, where's Taeil hyung, Doyoung ah?" 

"In his room" said Doyoung, "Can I open it?" asked Doyoung

"Yeah, why not? There is no name written there" shrugged Taeyong

While Taeyong went to the fridge for the cold water, Doyoung grabbed a scissor and cut it open.

"Hmmm......There are just a disk and a letter, hyung" said Doyoung, dumping the brown wrapper to the trash can.

"Hey, it's from Mark" said Doyoung that stole Taeyong's attention.

"Mark? Well that's strange.. He's on the trip with his other friends, right?" asked Taeyong, "What does the letter say?"

"Surprise, watch the video with all the members" read Doyoung aloud.

Somehow it didn't fit right to them.

"Well, let's call the others and watch it" said Taeyong

"Okay hyung, I'll get the members" said Doyoung

Taeyong went to the living room to set the dvd player while Doyoung went to call the members. Since no one was asleep so it didn't take long for all eight boys to settle down in the living room.

"What is it? Doyoung said Mark sent us a disk?" asked Taeil

"Why would he? I mean we live together" asked Haechan

"I'm as clueless as you" said Doyoung

"I'm playing it now" said Taeyong, pressing the play button.

Yet when the video started to play, they furrowed their eyebrows as their confusion only increased.

"Who is that? That's not Mark" asked Jaehyun

"Wait, isn't that Dino sunbaenim, from Seventeen?" asked Haechan

"Something's not right" said Johnny, somehow he was starting to sense that something's up.

Firstly because the man on the video looked like he was crying, secondly because he noticed another figure laying still next to Dino, barely moving.

**_Wooyoung from Ateez, Dino from Seventeen, Jaehyun from Golden Child, Haknyeon from The Boyz, and Mark from NCT are now my hostages. If you..._ **

Loud gasps were heard, fullfilling the room though they could still heard the video clearly. 

"Is this real?" asked Jungwoo

"I'm calling Mark now" said Yuta, he was tense but so were they.

**_If you ever want to... see them alive again, the companies must pay a total amout of..._ **

"Call the managers, now!" ordered Taeil

"Yes hyung" said Taeyong

"Pick up Mark! Pick up Godammit!" said Yuta

"Mark's not picking up" said Yuta, panic filled his voice.

"Keep trying" said Doyoung, "Just keep trying, please.."

"I'm calling the other members, maybe they know where Mark is" saod Jungwoo

"Does any of you have his friends numbers?" asked Taeil

"I don't but I'll try calling Mingyu" said Jaehyun

Their attention was no longer on the video, "It couldn't be real... I.. I just talk to him yesterday" said Jaehyun, "He's not picking up either"

All of them were panicking, they were in denial, that was for sure.

"Mark can't be kidnapped, he can't.." uttered Johnny

"Manager is on his way" said Taeyong

Taeyong shakily took a sit again, he still couldn't believe it, more like he refused to. He was looking at the floor as a drop of tear hit the floor.

_**The next video will show you an example of the consequences** _

It had grabbed their attention again which was distracted by too busy trying to contact Mark.

"What's next video?" asked Jaehyun

__________________________________________________

  
"Jongho ya, come here quickly"

"Yes hyung.." a reply was heard from the maknae's bedroom.

"What is it hyung? Why do you all gather here? Are we having a team meeting without Wooyoung hyung?" asked Jongho

"No, just take a seat somewhere" said Hongjoong

"Wooyoung sent us a video, he said to watch it together because there's a surprise there" informed Seonghwa

"Well that's weird.. He just left yesterday" said Jongho

"Right, I thought so too" said San, "Maybe he wants to tell us something that he can't in person"

"And I'm still upset that he didn't take us along, I wanna go to the beach too" complained Mingi

"It's Wooyoung's trip with his friends" said Seonghwa

"I was born in 1999 too" said Mingi

"But you're not close to them" said Hongjoong

"Well you're kinda right" sajd Mingi 

"Wooyoung promised me that we will go somewhere tomorrow, you can come" said Yeosang

"I will then" said Mingi, "No taking back Yeosang ah"

"Anyway, let's just see it" said Yunho, "Pass me the remote" 

Yeosang passed the remote controller to Yunho and the guy pressed the play button.

"That's definitely not Wooyoung" it was the first thing San said.

"It's kinda dark, I can't tell who is it" said Hongjoong

"Hmm, isn't that Seventeen sunbaenim's maknae?" asked Yunho, squinting his eyes.

"Dino sunbaenim?" asked Jongho

"Yeah that surely looks like Dino, I think he's with Wooyoung right now" said San

"Didn't Wooyoung send this? Why would he send us a tape of Dino sunbaenim?" asked Seonghwa

"And who's that?" asked Yeosang, pointing to the laying figure next to Dino.

"Something's off" said Hongjoong, alarmed.

_**Wooyoung from Ateez, Dino from Seventeen, Jaehyun from Golden Child, Haknyeon from The Boyz, and Mark from NCT are now my hostages. If you...** _

They all froze at the mention of their absent member's name.

"I.. I don't understand.." said Jongho

San quickly pulled out his phone, his goal was to call his best friend.

_**If you ever want to... see them alive again, the companies must pay a total amout of...** _

"They've been kidnapped?" asked Seonghwa, he couldn't believe what he just said.

Yunho kept his eyes on the screen, he saw how shaking Dino was, how profusely his tears flowed, how he could swear he heard more cries from behind the camera, one of it could be from Wooyoung.

Then his eyes went twice bigger as he saw a person being lashed in front of his eyes, he couldn't see who it was but it was not Wooyoung, his eyes went back to Dino who continued speaking, much more shaking.

_**Ten billion won..** _

"No..." gasped Jongho

"I can't reach Wooyoung, it went straight to voice mail" said San, frustated.

Hongjoong was already on the phone with their manager while Yeosang also was with their other manager.

"No! This can't be happening.." cried Mingi

San was about to stand up when fell straight back to the couch, he looked pale and that wasn't a good sign.

No one wanted to believe it, they desperately wished it was all just a lie.

They couldn't describe what they were feeling at the moment but they knew for sure that they were not fine.

"Guys, there's another video.." said Yunho, "It's.. it's the consequences.."

__________________________________________________

  
"I'm coming.." 

Yet when he opened the door, he found no one there but his eyes fell upon a brown package on the floor.

"Maybe the mail man" shrugged the man

"Who's at the door Kevin ah?" asked the leader of The Boyz a.k.a Sangyeon

"The mailman perhaps, I found this on the floor" said Kevin, waving the package in the air "No sender's information, only our address" 

"Maybe from our fans?" asked Changmin

"But there should be at least a name addressed, right?" asked Juyeon

"Let's just open it hyung" said Sunwoo

"Wait a second" said Kevin, tearing the envelope open.

"A disk and a letter" informed Kevin, "Nothing else"

Jacob grabbed the letter out of Kevin's hand so he could read it aloud.

"Oh? It's from Haknyeon... Surprise, watch the video with all the members" said Jacob

"It's a good thing then we all here" said Younghoon

"But it's not like Haknyeon to do this kind of thing" said Hyunjae

"Yeah and why didn't he send it to our group chat instead?" asked Sunwoo

"Maybe it's a prank" guessed Eric, "Or maybe he want to tell us that he loves us through the video"

"That.. That is so absurd, Eric ah" said Younghoon, "And why disk though?" 

"Give it to me, I'll play it" said Chanhee

Chanhee went to the dvd player, slid the disk inside and pressed the play button before going back the where he had previously been sitting.

"Hey, it's Dino sunbaenim.. Maybe it's a video from their trip" said Changmin

"But he just left yesterday morning, how is this possible?" asked Hyunjae

"It doesn't look like a beach" said Eric

"Wait a second, look closely.. Doesn't he look like he was crying?" asked Juyeon

"Yeah..... you're right" said Sangyeon

"Why?" asked Changmin, scrunching.

**_Wooyoung from Ateez, Dino from Seventeen, Jaehyun from Golden Child, Haknyeon from The Boyz, and Mark from NCT are now my hostages. If you..._ **

"What the fuck?!" cursed Kevin

"I'm... I'm calling hyung right now" said Sunwoo

"This must be a joke.." said Eric, "My guess is right, this must be a prank"

"I.. I don't think so.." said Jacob, "I think whoever was laying next to him was hurt, isn't that blood?" he felt goosebumps all over his skin.

"It's not Haknyeon, right?" asked Juyeon, panicking.

Some of them went closer to the screen so they could take a really good look at the person.

"No, I think that isn't Haknyeon" said Changmin

"Thank Goodness" said Hyunjae, sumpling his body to the back of the couch.

"But he seems familiar though" said Younghoon

They heard every word Dino said and they never felt this worse before. 

All of them felt like being drained out, like their souls had left their bodies, well that could happen if your sunshine ball was taken away from you.

"Manager hyung is in his way right now" said Sangyeon

"I can't watch this, I can't.." said Chanhee, going to the kitchen maybe to cry his eyes out.

"Chanhee ya.." called Jacob, going after the younger

"Gosh... ten billion.." whispered Eric in shock

"What should we do hyung?" asked Juyeon

"How.. How do we safe him?" asked Hyunjae

"What if we can't see him anymore?" asked Sunwoo, eyes filled with fear, "Hyung.." cried Sunwoo

"No this isn't right! It's not real!" Eric left the room in hurry to his bedroom with tears on his eyes, he refused to watch the rest of the video.

He slammed the door pretty hard but they couldn't careless about some door.

"I'll go after him" said Sangyeon, he was quiet but a storm was raging inside.

"There's more..." whispered Younghoon

Tears were rolling, this was something they wished would never happen at all.

.

.

.

To be continued


	4. Finding Out Part 2

"What is that, Jeonghan hyung?" 

"This? I found this before our door, Mingyu ya" said Jeonghan as he walked to the living room while holding a particular brown package.

"Who is it for?" asked the tall guy

"No idea, our address is the only thing written on here" said Jeonghan

"Why don't we just open it?" suggested Hoshi who was in the middle of a battle game with Mingyu.

"Yeah, it could be for all of us, except you Mingyu hyung" said Seungkwan

"But why?" said Mingyu, a pout was visible but his eyes were still on the game.

"Cause you don't live on this floor, remember?" said Woozi who just came out from the kitchen

"Fair enough" said Mingyu, "But I'm curious too"

Jeonghan opened the package only to find the disk and the letter.

"Hey, Dino sent this" said Jeonghan, raising his eyebrows.

"As in our maknae Dino? That's so old-fashioned of him" teased Seungkwan

"And why would he even send us a letter? He's two floor away from us?" said Woozi

"Doesn't make sense...... What about the disk?" asked Hoshi

"He told us to watch the disk together" said Jeonghan

Jeonghan went to the television, brutally plugged off whatever game the two were playing which of course earned protests from them, and set the dvd.

"Hyungggg" whined Hoshi

"Ssshhh!" said Jeonghan, "Let's see what Dino sent us" 

"But you didn't have to do that hyung, that is sooo unnecessary" whined Mingyu but he went quiet as soon as the video began.

They saw the video started displaying their maknae kneeling on the floor with a paper in his hands, such a strange sight.

"Who is that on the ground next to him?" asked Mingyu

All of them started to get a not so good vibe from the video, "Wait, is he crying?" asked Woozi, alarmed because Dino didn't cry.

_**Wooyoung from Ateez, Dino from Seventeen, Jaehyun from Golden Child, Haknyeon from The Boyz, and Mark from NCT are now my hostages. If you...** _

Silence was present immediately, their mouth was hanging open but no sound came out, not trusting their own ears and eyes at the moment as they froze.

Jeonghan who was still standing next to the television quickly plugged off the dvd player in instant. His legs gave up and his knees almost hit the hard floor if it wasn't for Mingyu who caught him in time.

"Hyung you're okay?" asked Mingyu

"Call the others now!" Jeonghan's voice was stern.

"Now!" said Jeonghan

Mingyu and Hoshi decided to do it the old way which was running to the other two dorms upstairs while Woozi decided to phone their manager.

"I'm calling the manager" said Woozi

Meanwhile Jeonghan, he just sat there, trying to make sense of everything. He brushed his hands against his face, no way this was happening.

No, not his baby.

Hostages, he decided that he hated that word from this moment forward but it wasn't a matter of liking or not, was it?

7 minutes, that was it took for all twelve of them to crowd the spacious living room.

Questions filled their minds and it was surely shown on their faces, well except the five members.

"Now tell me what's wrong?" asked Seungcheol, he was feeling really uneasy from looking at Jeonghan.

The leader had been writing some lyrics for their next album when Hoshi barged in while screaming that they had to go to the first floor dorm and judging from the younger's expression, it was a do first ask question later situation and clearly the rest was thinking the same thing.

"It's.. Dino.." said Jeonghan, his voice started to crack.

"What's with Dino? Isn't he with his friends at the beach, right now?" asked Wonwoo

"Play it.." said Jeonghan and Woozi pressed the play button.

"What is this, hyung?" asked Dokyeom but Jeonghan's sniff was all he got.

_**Wooyoung from Ateez, Dino from Seventeen, Jaehyun from Golden Child, Haknyeon from The Boyz, and Mark from NCT are now my hostages. If you...** _

"No.." gasped Joshua, "No!" 

Some of them even stood up in shock to what they were witnessing.

_**If you ever want to... see them alive again, the companies must pay a total amout of...** _

They froze again upon seeing the person next to their maknae getting lashed and they could see that Dino was in terror too. It alarmed them so much that they felt like turning the city upside down just so they could bring their maknae home.

_**Ten billion won..** _

It only made them felt worse, watching it further but they couldn't look away.

There, they saw their maknae, obviously terrified and there was not a single thing they could do for him. He was shaking and crying, they never saw him in that state before and they'd never want to see him like that again.

_**All five companies have four days, counting down the moment you receive this video... You must put the money in two bags and I will tell you later where to stash the money** _

_**You can call the police but it's.. not like they could help with anything..** _

"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Dokyeom

"I feel sick..." whispered Vernon

Seungcheol was gripping his phone really hard, he didn't believe that this nightmare was real. He even almost threw his phone at the floor.

_**Do as we say then they will be fine but if you try something stupid.... The next video will show you an example of the consequences** _

Sobs were echoing in that room, not even a single pair of eyes that was dry.

They saw Dino paused for the nnth time, seeing him in that state really broke their heart into miliion, no, billion pieces.

**_If something goes wrong, I will make sure that you will find them buried in the ground few years later with only bones left..._ **

"No!" gasped Vernon

Then just like that the video loaded to the next one.

"My baby..." sobbed Jeonghan, "My poor baby..."

"What do we do now?" asked Minghao, there was a hint of fear in his voice

"I'm trying to call his phone, now" said Jun, "I gotta try" 

But there was no point in trying to call their maknae, wasn't it? Not after they saw the whole video.

"This can't be happening.." uttered Dokyeom

"No.. Not our Dino.." sobbed Joshua

Completely useless, that was exactly what they were feeling right now.

They were helpless as the next video started to begin.

__________________________________________________

  
A loud sound of glass shattering was instantly heard as Joochan dropped the glass he was holding yet not even a glance he spared at the broken glass. 

He felt like he just lost his strength, he turned pale and felt really sick at the pit of his stomach. The same expression could be seen on the other faces in the room.

"Jae..hyun.." gasped Joochan

"I.. I need to sit down" said Sungyoon as he slowly did that.

They couldn't take their eyes off the screen, "It must be some kind of a joke, right?" asked Donghyun but no joke was this sick.

"It has to, Jaehyun probably laughing right now thinking we believe this" said Jibeom

"I don't think this is a joke.." said Sungyoon, shaking his head.

"Hyung, Jaehyun hyung..... hyung.." their maknae was crying the loudest out of them.

Bomin was a known cry-baby but he never cried like this and Jangjun who was sitting behind him could only rubbed his back because what else he could do.

"Why did..... he.. he do that to... Jaehyun hyung? What... is Jaehyun...hyung's...fault?" sobbed Bomin.

"I'm calling our manager" said Daeyeol, pulling out his phone.

"Shouldn't we call the police too?" sobbed Donghyun

"Of course" said Seungmin

Daeyeol's hands were shaking badly and that was why he accidentally dropped the phone, "I'm.. sorry.." said Daeyeol, he had never been this afraid before.

Daeyeol went to the side of the room to call their manager but his eyes never left the screen.

Then the video changed to the next one and their nightmare just got worse.

"It's Jaehyun!" said Youngtaek, making their attentions shifted back to the screen, more focused than before.

"Oh no.." gasped Sungyoon

They saw him kneeling on the ground, his face was calm but they knew him so well to tell that he was scared to death.

Jaehyun looked to his side, giving a small smile and mouthing something and they guessed it was to the other ones.

Then as the lash sound was heard, they all froze in fear and shock.

Most of them had to brought their hands up to cover their mouths watching the torture Jaehyun was about to get.

Daeyeol even stopped talking, he lost his words. His arms lost it's strength to hold the phone up, he didn't even hear his manager calling his name.

They couldn't think, all they could do was painfully watching that.

"God no.." sobbed Seungmin

The sound, it was agonizing to hear and they couldn't imagine how Jaehyun was feeling.

"Stop it!" half-yelled Bomin

They saw him biting his lower lip, they saw how tight he shut his eyes as the whip touch his skin and also how fast his breath got afterwards.

As the video kept playing, they finally heard him screaming after few moments and it made them sob harder. Screams that didn't belong to Jaehyun was present too.

"Jaehyun ah.." whispered Joochan, his face was wet with tears and when he looked around, the others were the same too.

Their eyes was filled with terror when they saw how bad the person hurt Jaehyun.

"Don't worry, our Jaehyun is a strong guy.. He is strong" said Jangjun but really, who was he trying to convince?

Bomin was hiding his face on the crook of Jangjun's neck, he couldn't watch his hyung going under torture like that. Their maknae was sobbing really loud but they couldn't stop him.

Jaehyun's screams pierce right through their ears to their hearts, their skins shuddered watching blood coming out from the freshly torn skin.

How plain the pain was shown on his face.

They couldn't bare watching till the end of the video yet they couldn't tear their eyes away either.

Until they saw the last whip that sent Jaehyun hitting the ground harshly and he couldn't get up again, it brought back the pure terror to their expressions.

"Jaehyun!" called Jibeom

They were scared for his life, real bad.

His white clothes was no longer white and his smooth skin was no longer flawless.

All they wanted was to see him again, they needed to save him even if it meant losing most of their money.

"I'm going to call Sangyeon hyung" said Youngtaek

"I'll clean this" said Joochan, he couldn't just stay still at the moment

"I will help you" said Seungmin

Never in their minds crossed the the thought of witnessing their friend, actually their family, experiencing something horrible like that. 

__________________________________________________

  
Sangyeon closed his eyes, still trying to calm himself down. He was alone at his room at the moment, his phone was on the desk in front of him.

"What should we do?" came a voice from his phone.

Right now, he was on the phonecall with the other four groups's leaders. It turned out that the five group had recieved the package around the same time.

"For now, let's do what the police instructs us to do" it was Seungcheol.

"Do nothing and wait? I'm not sure I can do that or my members too" this one was the leader of Ateez

"I know but what choices do we have? Roaming around Seoul without clue?" asked Seungcheol

"That if they are still in Seoul" added Taeyong

"Alright, let's stop guessing.. Just pray for our missing members" said Daeyeol

"Daeyeol hyung is right" said Sangyeon, "We'll keep everyone posted, okay?"

"Yes" agreed the others

"Daeyeol-ssi..." called Seungcheol

"Yes sunbaenim?" asked Daeyeol

"I saw the video.... I'm sorry.. It must be hard.." said Seungcheol

"Thank you.." said Daeyeol, anyone could tell he was in the verge of crying.

"We'll get them back" said Sangyeon, "We will"

"Yeah, I know.." said Daeyeol, "I just wish I ever tell him how lucky I am to have him as my bandmates"

They all did

"I know I shouldn't do this but the thought of not seeing him breathing again.... It scares me.." said Daeyeol

"Me too.." said Taeyong

"But why can't we just pay them and get our members back? Remind me again why do we have to wait?" asked Hongjoong

"Because they're really bad guys and giving money to people like them would only lead to a bigger disaster" said Seungcheol, "Or that is what the police told me.. And I understand them, partly" 

"But what if the police couldn't find them in time? You watched the video, whoever did this wasn't afraid of the police" said Hongjoong

"I hate waiting in the dark" said Taeyong

"That's all we can do right now, sadly" said Seungcheol, "I'm as frustated as the rest of you"

"I'm sorry.." whispered Daeyeol, his voice cracked meaning that he couldn't hold his tears any longer.

"It's okay" said Seungcheol

"You have to be strong hyung" said Sangyeon

"We can get through this if we stay strong" said Taeyong, but was it really? 

"I'm really sorry but I have to go, the company wants to talk to me" said Seungcheol

"Let's end the call for now" said Hongjoong

"Stay strong everybody" said Sangyeon

"Yes, we will do our best" said Daeyeol

"Stay safe" said Taeyong, "We have to be strong for them too"

"Yes, we have to" said Seungcheol

After bidding their goodbyes, they ended the phone call right there.

Sangyeon felt like crying again even though he knew better that as a leader he had to be stronger than anyone else.

But right now he was alone at his room so he let the tears escaped his eyes, no one would see him right now.

"Haknyeon ah.." whispered Sangyeon

.

.

.

To be continued


	5. The First Call

The next time Jaehyun woke up, everything was still hurting but at least he now could force himself to sit upright.

All of them were just sitting there in silent, trying to save up their energy.

Unexpectedly, a sudden sound caught their attentions but this time, instead of feeling scared, they bursted into laughter.

Why? 

Because the sound they just heard was the sound of a rumbling stomach.

"Okay who's that?" asked Wooyoung, still laughing.

"Me.. Hey, don't blame me.. I haven't eaten anything, even from before we go" whined Mark

"Why though?" asked Jaehyun who had his head leaning on Haknyeon's shoulder

They felt bad for laughing but it was merely a little humor to entertain them in this situation.

"Because I thought that we were gonna be eating a lot of food at the beach so I was trying to empty my tummy beforehand" explained Mark, "Since my stomach couldn't take much food.. That's why"

"Make sense" said Dino

"Well maybe we're gonna die here from hunger instead" said Mark

"We can't die from hunger in just four days, Mark" said Wooyoung

"I can, food is my life" said Haknyeon

"He seriously could" added Jaehyun, chuckling

"At least we still have water, we can drink water until our stomach is bloated" said Dino

"What choices do we have, right?" asked Mark

"Water is delicious" said Haknyeon, "Just think like that and we'll survive"

"Alright alright" said Wooyoung

The silent was broken as they continued to speak about literally anything, every topic that crossed their minds. Distracting their minds from thinking about the horrible thing they were experiencing right now.

At first, they did think that staying still and be quiet was the best way but they couldn't help with the fear that came along with the silent and that was why the quiet session was over. 

However, Jaehyun who was still leaning on Haknyeon suddenly whispered something to his friend.

And since he was speaking really slow, pretty sure only Haknyeon heard him, which was his purpose in the first place.

"Haknyeon ah.." whispered Jaehyun

"Yes?" asked Haknyeon

No one noticed the small conversation and that was good because Jaehyun was afraid that their kidnappers were listening too.

"I don't know if it was a dream but.." said Jaehyun in a low voice.

Haknyeon kept his mouth shut and his ears sharp.

"I think I was awake for a split second when they moved us from the van to this room" said Jaehyun

"Are you sure? Though a split second is a short time" said Haknyeon

"Well maybe longer than that but I just remember something" said Jaehyun

"Okay, tell me" said Haknyeon

"Firstly, I remember seeing grass and no buildings.."

"So we're not in the city anymore" said Haknyeon

"Then I saw canola flowers, Haknyeon ah.. I knew when I saw one or some" said Jaehyun

"And?" asked Haknyeon, not catching the point

"Don't you remember? Canola only grew wild in Yeosu" said Jaehyun

"Crap.." gasped Haknyeon, he got it now.

"Hey, what are you two talking about?" asked Dino

"Oh? Nothing, mostly just our happy memories" said Haknyeon.

"What were you three talking about?" asked Jaehyun

"I want to know if they put some kind of tapping devices here" said Dino

"Let's just assume they do" said Wooyoung

"But I saw no camera or any place to hide a camera so maybe they're not watching us right?" asked Mark

"Maybe not, maybe yes" said Wooyoung, "Let's assume the worse" 

"Hey, something crossed my mind" said Jaehyun

"Do you remember the trip we have last summer, the three of us.... Haknyeon, you, and me?" asked Jaehyun to Wooyoung

"On Haknyeon's birthday, we went to Jeju island and we spent the day exploring the city... Do you remember how Haknyeon fell down in such a funny way because he was running too fast? That was really funny... I wish we could do trip like that again" said Jaehyun

"You fell?" asked Mark to Haknyeon, "Man, I wish I was there to witness it" 

"But.." trailed Wooyoung off but he quickly fell into silence when he saw Jaehyun's expression.

"You were laughing really loud while I was the only one who help him" said Wooyoung, trying not to act suspicious.

"Because it was way too funny" said Jaehyun

"Alright, alright stop making me remember that" said Haknyeon

To other people, it might be just a simple memory recalling but for Wooyoung, who was a quick-witted guy in the first place, he caught the hidden meaning behind Jaehyun's words.

As a start, they certainly did not go to Jeju on Haknyeon's birthday. However, it was true that they went on a trip on Haknyeon's birthday but not to Jeju.

The three of them went to Yeosu instead and he knew for sure that Jaehyun didn't say Jeju because he forgot. 

He wanted him to remember Yeosu.

' _So does it mean we're in Yeosu? But how could he know that? Even if we are in Yeosu, nothing changes unless we escape_ ' thought Wooyoung sadly

Wooyoung remembered Yeosu, the small town near the sea and he remembered the town as a place with less people and more trees.

"Sshh, someone's coming" said Dino that made them became quiet again as the tension thickened.

Someone opened the door roughly, it turned out to be 'Giant' or that was how they called him since they didn't know the real one. They called him that because he was the tallest and the biggest.

"Please let us go.." asked Haknyeon, there was nothing wrong with trying, right?

Giant ignored Haknyeon and went to Dino instead, "Get up!" it was the first time they heard him speak, his tone was much deep and scary too.

"No! Leave us alone!" said Dino

"You too!" said Giant to Wooyoung

They of course refused to do as he said, the fear of what might happen came back strong.

Giant scoffed before saying, "Or do you want to get lashed too?"

Alright, that made the two of the stood reluctantly, "No.." said Mark, trying to stop them but he was as helpless as the rest.

Haknyeon had his arms around Jaehyun, securing his bestfriend while Jaehyun was putting his angry face even though he was shaking inside. Jaehyun reached for Mark and pulled his friend closer.

"Put this on!" ordered Giant, tossing a black cloth to each of them.

They looked troubled but still did it anyway, afraid of the possibility getting lashed.

Giant took Dino and Wooyoung out from the room and they heard the door lock clicking again.

"What will happen to them?" asked Mark, panic rising.

"I don't know... Let's.. Let's pray for them" said Haknyeon

"What is happening to us? Why us?" asked Jaehyun, clearly frustated.

Was it bad luck? Or was it intentional?

While the three of them was worried as sick about the other two, Dino and Wooyoung were brought to another room.

They couldn't see anything but they tried to put their ears to use as best they could.

When they entered the room, the musty smell hit them harder and it felt more suffocating than the room before.

Dino was taken away from Wooyoung by force, "Dino ya!" called Wooyoung

"Wooyoung ah!" called Dino

Each were forced to sit down on a chair and when the cloth was removed, they could see each other sitting at each end of a long table.

"Let us go!" demanded Wooyoung

"Right, like you scare us" it was Boss, their code name for the man who whipped Jaehyun.

Some laughters were heard at the corner of the room, "Look, we haven't seen any of your faces so we won't be able to identify you so just let us ago" said Dino, "We won't even talk to the police"

"You five aren't going anywhere until I get my money" said Boss

"You want money? Then fucking work for it like any decent normal people do!" said Wooyoung, his tone raising.

"Watch your tone!" warned Boss, "And we are working, it's just that this kind of work was way more easy and fun, am I right boys?"

Sounds of agreements were heard, of course they did.

"Fuck you!" cursed Wooyoung, "Fuck all of you!"

"Woah, he got a mouth people!' mocked Boss, "I must warn you though.. I have anger issues"

"What do you want?" asked Dino, "Why are we in 'this' room?"

Boss turned to Dino, "We will give them a proof of you being alive" 

"You let us call our member?" asked Dino

"No, not you" said Boss, "Him" he pointed to Wooyoung

Dino furrowed his eyebrows, "Then why am I here?"

All of sudden, the next thing he knew that someone came from behind him and a knife was being held dangerously close to his neck, it happened really fast that all he could do was stiffen up under the cold sharp metal.

"No!" shrieked Wooyoung as he stood up in shock but Boss pushed him back down sitting.

"He's here for me to make sure you don't do anything stupid when you talk your friends" said Boss, "You surely don't want to be responsible for your friend's death, right?"

"There is no need to do that, I will do exactly as you say" said Wooyoung

"I know that but we need to be cautious, right?" asked Boss

Wooyoung looked defeated that no more stern look on that face or maybe he was indeed lost, all his though act had gone to the trash can.

Boss pulled out a phone and put in on the table in front of Wooyoung, "Tell them that all five of you are alive and they have little over three days from now"

Then Boss punched some numbers that Wooyoung recognized very well, it was Hongjoong's phone number. But how did he know that number? Was it from Wooyoung's phone?

Wooyoung was fidgeting his fingers on his lap, he was nervous of making mistakes that would lead to Dino's death. He couldn't afford to do that.

It took a while but finally on the last ring, Hongjoong answered the call.

" **Hello?** " hearing his voice made him realize that he missed his leader so bad.

"Hong... Hongjoong.. Hongjoong hyung..." called Wooyoung, he cursed at himself for stuttering.

" _ **Wooyoung ah?! Are you alright?! Are you hurt?! Is this really you?!**_ " asked Hongjoong repeatedly.

Wooyoung swore he could hear the other's voices scurrying closer on the background, he thought he heard Seonghwa asking if it was him on the other line.

Maybe Hongjoong had put him on speaker now so the others could hear him too.

Wooyoung looked at Dino and found the knife was now literally touching Dino's skin and his friend looking really terrified.

Tattoo was the man who was holding the knife, they named him that because the skull tattoo on his wrist. He was the one who set the camera before.

"I'm okay hyung" said Wooyoung, he glanced at Boss before looking back at Dino.

"All of us are still alive and...."

Wooyoung saw Tattoo putting pressure on the knife and he could see from Dino's face that it had cut his skin.

Dino's breath got stuck on his throat, he was too afraid to move or to even breathe

"Stop please!" yelled Wooyoung desperately at Boss before focusing back to the screen in panic.

"He wants me to remind you that you all have a little over three days to pay them" said Wooyoung in haste.

"I've done it! Now put the knife away from my friend's neck!" howled Wooyoung

Instead, Tattoo pressed harder, "Please.... I'm sorry, please..." Wooyoung's tone fell off.

"Please..." begged Wooyoung

Boss put his hand out and Tattoo finaly stop pressing but the knife was still resting on Dino's neck.

" _ **Wait!**_ " they heard Hongjoong half-yelled.

" _ **You haven't told as the place to put the money**_ " said Hongjoong

"We will call you again later" said Boss

" _ **Wooyoung ah, don't worry we..**_ "

Wooyoung didn't get to hear the rest of Hongjoong's words because Boss quickly pressed the end call button.

Boss waved his hand to Tattoo and he finally removed the knife. Only after that Dino let out a big breath that he had been holding.

There was a thin long red line from the blood on Dino's neck, hopefully from the look, it wasn't deep.

"I hope you will rott in hell" said Wooyoung under his breath.

"What did you say?" asked Boss

"I said I hope you all rott in hell" said Wooyoung but there was no harsh tone in his voice, just a tired and frustated one.

Boss looked at him for a brief second, "Bring them back!" ordered Boss.

Their eyes were back being covered with the black cloth on the way back to the previous room.

"Dino ya, you're okay?" asked Wooyoung

"Woo, what the hell was that back there? Are you trying to get us killed a lot sooner?" asked Dino regarding his friend's behavior.

"I can't help it.. I'm so sorry I should've thought about that" said Wooyoung

"Just... We just need to survive the next three days or more" said Dino

"I know, I'm really sorry" said Wooyoung

"It's alright, I understand how you feel too" said Dino, he couldn't exactly blame him for acting like that.

"How's your neck?" asked Wooyoung

"Not bad" said Dino

Giant shoved them back to the room before locking it again.

"Dino ya?! What happened?!" asked Jaehyun, worriedly.

So Wooyoung told them exactly what happened from the beginning to the end as Mark grabbed a bowl of water from the bathroom.

"Try to hold back, okay?" asked Haknyeon softly

"I will" said Wooyoung, "We're not mad nor we blame you" said Jaehyun

"Thank you" said Wooyoung

Mark tried to clean Dino's wound as best he could and Dino couldn't help but wincing at the contact. He wiped the blood droplets on Dino's neck then the slightly open skin carefully.

"I.. I tried to use my ear out there.." said Wooyoung, "But I heard no sound at all, it was like a dead quiet so either it was night time or we are literally in the middle of nowhere" whispered Wooyoung

"Not really helping... Anything else you noticed?" asked Haknyeon

"I counted six people" whispered Wooyoung, "seven with Boss"

"I hope that's all of them" whispered Mark

"Let's list them" whispered Jaehyun

"Boss, Giant, Tattoo, Hobble, Thin were the ones here before, who are the rest?" asked Mark

"Let's call them Short and...." said Wooyoung, "Watch" cut Dino in

"Watch was standing on the corner behind Wooyoung earlier, I saw the shiny silver watch on his wrist" said Dino

"Alright, let's hope no more of them" said Haknyeon

"Meanwhile, Dino ya, Jaehyun ah, you two better have some rest" said Mark

"What about you?" asked Jaehyun

"We'll take turns" said Mark, "Just rest now so you could gather some strength.. We don't know if they will give us food or not"

"Okay, thanks" said Dino and Jaehyun

__________________________________________________

  
Hongjoong was literally daydreaming in the living room when the phone on his hand vibrated. He had intended to ignore it but upon glancing then seeing the unknown numbers, his finger moved to punch the green button.

A day almost passed since the received the video.

"Hello?" Hongjoong sounded so tired, like having no energy

" ** _Hong... Hongjoong.. Hongjoong hyung..._** "

Hongjoong froze for a second when the familiar voice hit his hearing, "Wooyoung ah?! Are you alright?! Are you hurt?! Is this really you?!"

As the name escaped his lips loudly, he could hear the others started to gather next to him in a flash.

"Is that Wooyoung?" asked Seonghwa

"Wooyoung ah!" called San 

" _ **I'm okay hyung**_ "

The boy sounded very tired, so drained out.

"It's him.." gasped Yeosang

" _ **All of us are still alive and....**_ "

They heard Wooyoung pausing but they finally could let out some relief breaths after knowing that Wooyoung and the others were alive.

" _ **Stop please!**_ " Their eyes went wide upon hearing the raising panicked voice from Wooyoung.

Was Wooyoung being hurt, right now?

" _ **He wants me to remind you that you all have a little over three days to pay them**_ " he was speaking in a rush.

" _ **I've done it! Now put the knife away from my friend's neck!**_ "

Yunho and Mingi covered their mouths when they heard him but who was he talking about?

There were some couple tense seconds before they heard Wooyoung's voice broke,

" _ **Please.... I'm sorry, please...**_ " Wooyoung's tone fell off.

" _ **Please...**_ " their hearts broke at the sound of him begging.

Hongjoong felt like the need to intervene so he yelled "Wait!"

Now he must think of what to say next, he tried to come up with something when just the right thing crossed his mind.

"You haven't told as the place to put the money" said Hongjoong

"We will call you again later" they heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Wooyoung ah, don't worry we will save you" said Hongjoong

"They cut off the line" said Mingi

"I'm calling the police" said Jongho

"But didn't they tap our call already?" asked Mingi

"Yeah, I'm sure they were listening this call too" said Yunho

"Then what should we do now? Nothing?" asked Jongho

"Yeah.." said Hongjoong, nothing they could do now.

"I miss him.." said San

"Me too" said Yeosang

"We'll get him back" said Seonghwa

"We will" said Hongjoong, "I don't care if I must search the whole South Korea" 

Neither did they.

.

.

.

To be continued


	6. The Second Call

"Jeonghan ah, Shua ya.." called Seungcheol

"What's wrong?" asked Joshua

Seungcheol suddenly pulled the eldest members to his room and it couldn't be just over something simple.

"Hongjoong just texted something in the group chat" said Seungcheol

"Okay, what is it?" asked Jeonghan

"He said that Wooyoung called them.." said Seungcheol

"You mean their kidnappers?" cut Joshua

"Yes, he was told to inform them that they all are alive and that we have a little over three days to collect the money" said Seungcheol

"Okay, but why didn't you tell this to all of us?" asked Jeonghan

"Because.... In the middle of that Wooyoung had said something that make Hongjoong believe that someone was holding a knife against one of them" said Seungcheol

"What did he say exactly?" asked Joshua, nervous.

"....put the knife away from my friend's neck...." said Seungcheol

"Oh no.. Please not my baby.." said Jeonghan, his eyes were still red from crying.

"We don't know who that was, it could be Dino or not.. I really hope it wasn't" said Seungcheol

"And the reason I pulled you two here because I want to ask your opinions... Should we tell this to the rest? There's a chance that it wasn't Dino" said Seungcheol

"Let's keep this part to ourselves for now.. Just tell them about Wooyoung calling them but not this part" said Jeonghan after thinking

"I agree, I don't want them to get more sad because of hearing this and thinking of the worst" said Joshua

"Alright then" said Seungcheol, nodding at the two of them.

__________________________________________________

  
"How are you holding up, Jaehyun ah?" asked Mark

"I don't know.... My body hurts and I want to go home" admitted Jaehyun

Jaehyun was woken up from a nightmare that made him not able to fall back asleep anymore so here he was, accompanying Mark.

"Yeah I want to go home too..." said Mark, he missed his bed so bad.

"Mark, do you think a day has passed since..... we were taken?" asked Jaehyun

"I think so, I don't know how long we were out back there but I think we are here for more than a day, two most likely" said Mark

"We should've been back home right now if we hadn't been kidnapped" said Jaehyun

"Jaehyun ah.." said Mark

"Hmm?" asked Jaehyun

"If.. I don't make it out of here alive but you do.. Will you tell my family, my members too, that I love them and I'm sorry I can't be there for them longer but I want them to keep living forward" said Mark

"What are you talking about Mark?!" asked Jaehyun, "We won't die, not here"

"You know, just incase" said Mark

"No! Stop talking nonsense" said Jaehyun

"Alright, just remember I ask you that" said Mark

"You know, I love to watch you on stage" said Jaehyun, he needed to change the conversation.

"Thank you, man" said Mark

"I love your rap, you are amazing on stage... I just wanna say that" said Jaehyun

"I appreciate it, I really do" said Mark

"And by the way, I believe that we can survive days without food.. We're used to extreme diets anyway" said Jaehyun

"I agree with you honestly" said Mark, "We got this"

Mark put his hand on the air and Jaehyun clasped his hand to his. They liked do to a high five to cheer themselves up which was what they needed at the moment.

"I just wish we won't have scars to keep reminding us of what happened which was impossible" said Jaehyun as he glanced at Dino's still fresh wound on his neck.

"Someone's coming" said Mark, alarmed.

"Guys, wake up.. wake up.." said Jaehyun.

"Someone's coming guys, wake up" said Mark

They all were fully awake three seconds later, "What will happen now?" asked Dino upon hearing the door lock clicking.

Though his question was left unanswered as the door was slammed open and Giant walked inside.

Giant walked closer and tossed the same black blindfolds roughly towards their direction.

"You! And You! Let's go!" said Giant, pointing to Mark and Haknyeon

This time they did it without protest because there was no point at that anyway, just a waste of energy.

"Be careful" said Wooyoung and both nodded.

Haknyeon and Mark tried to be more aware of their surroundings, using their nose, their ears, and their sense of directions. They tried to remember the turns and calculating the distance by counting how many seconds it took.

According to what Dino and Wooyoung told them, they believed that they were brought to the same room.

Haknyeon sat where Wooyoung previously did while Mark sat on the same seat as Dino before.

As soon as their blindfolds were taken off, Haknyeon's eyes scanned the room and he was sure that it was the same room.

"I'm sure they've told you about what we did here" said Boss

"Yes, they did" said Mark

"Alright so as to not waste more of my time, right now I want you to tell them where to put the money bags" said Boss

"Don't you think the police will set a trap there?" asked Haknyeon

"Let me worry about that, you just do what I told you to" said Boss

"I will and please no need to threaten us with a knife" said Haknyeon

Boss waved his hand in the air and the next thing they knew, Tattoo was holding a knife against Mark's skin. All it needed was only some pressure and his neck would start bleeding immediately.

"No!" jolted Haknyeon while Mark was scared stiff.

"It's way more fun this way" whispered Boss before chuckling evilly and Haknyeon slightly glared at him.

Boss put the phone in front of Haknyeon, the screen showing an on going phone call to a phone number he knew too well.

"Hyunjae hyung?" asked Haknyeon

" ** _Haknyeon ah!_** " Hyunjae sounded surprised

"Yes hyung, it's me.. Haknyeon.." said Haknyeon, "I miss you hyung.."

Boss slid a paper next to the phone, there was two addresses written there.

" _ **Haknyeon ah...**_ " That was Sangyeon's voice.

Hearing them suddenly brought tears to his eyes, he thought he was okay, he was strong but guess he was so wrong.

"Hyung..." sobbed Haknyeon, his voice wavering.

Boss knocked twice on the table and it made Haknyeon remembered about Mark.

" _ **We will get you back Haknyeon ah, we promise you**_ " it's Jacob and more tears fell down.

"He.. He wants me to inform you... the location for you to put the money bag.." sobbed Haknyeon

" _ **Okay, it's alright... We're listening Haknyeon ah**_ " said Sangyeon

Haknyeon then read what was written in the paper, he was familiar with one. It was the address of the train station in Seoul, the one he used to take while the other one, he knew the area but not the exact address.

_**"Alright, we'll pass this informartion to the other groups**_ " said Sangyeon

"I.. I love you all... Please tell my family too.." sobbed Haknyeon

He knew that some of the members were crying too.

"Hyung me too.." Haknyeon looked up and found Mark was crying like he was.

"Please tell NCT and Mark's family too.." said Haknyeon

" _ **We will see... What is that?!!!**_ "

Sangyeon was saying something when a high pitched sound of scream broke in followed with a loud whimpered.

Haknyeon recognized that voice very well, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HIM?!!!"

"JAEHYUN!!" screamed Haknyeon, forgetting about his members.

"Sit down!" ordered Boss

"NO!! Let me see him!!" yelled Haknyeon

Haknyeon was trashing around, he also forgot about Mark for a moment because right now on his mind, there was only Jaehyun. He needed to see his best friend right now.

His screams were ringing inside his ears over and over again, like a broken tape.

"Let me go you fucker!!" yelled Haknyeon and the next thing he knew was that he was on the ground with a really throbbing left cheek.

He thought he heard his members screaming his name but his mind was distracted when a kick came in contact with his stomach real hard. Then everything became hazy.

After some good rounds of beating that he spit out blood, they eventually stopped. Haknyeon couldn't hear his members any longer, maybe Boss had ended the call in the middle of his struggles.

"Haknyeon ah, you're okay... you're okay.." Mark was crying really hard as he crouched down next to him.

Haknyeon felt pain all over his body but he was sober and that was a good thing because at least he didn't have a concussion.

"Mark... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry.." cried Haknyeon harder upon seeing Mark's bruised cheek and his bleeding neck like Dino.

"No.. I'm okay, don't worry about me.." sobbed Mark

When he saw his friend being beaten, he had instinctively tried to save him and which earned him a punch to his right cheek and long scratches from the knife due to his sudden moves.

Then they heard the screams again, the sound made their stomachs twist, cold sweats dripping, and goosebumps all over their bodies. 

**Flashback**

Not long after Giant took Mark and Haknyeon away, the door was opened again and Watch walked in, the silver watch was resting proudly on his wrist.

"You, come with me" orderd Watch as he threw a black blindfold at Jaehyun, his tone was flat and heartless.

"No! He's still weak.. Take me instead" said Wooyoung

"No you can't!" protested Jaehyun

"Boss asked for him, now follow me on your feet or I'll drag you, I have no problem with the second one" said Watch

Jaehyun stood up immediately, his upper body was still hurting like hell but his lower body was fine. "I'll go" said Jaehyun, putting the blindfold on.

The door was locked again and there was nothing they two could do besides waiting and praying for their friends.

Jaehyun was sure that he wasn't brought to the same room as Dino and Wooyoung before because he was taking different turns from what Dino and Wooyoung told him and he was pretty sure too that he wasn't being brought to Haknyeon and Mark either.

He realized that he had entered a room when he heard the door closing behind him and Watch made him sit on a chair.

When his blindfold was taken away, he found himself in an even darker room than before and it gave him fright.

"Where are Haknyeon and Mark?" asked Jaehyun

He didn't know how many people there but he could tell that there was a table in front of him and a camera few feets away from him, if it wasn't for the red light blinking, then he wouldn't know about the camera at all.

"What are you going to do to me?" asked Jaehyun to Watch who was standing next to him.

"Making an alternative way" said Watch

"Of?" asked Jaehyun 

"Incase something went wrong with the transaction or if Boss decides to do something else" said Watch

"Which is?" asked Jaehyun, his heart beat faster and it almost felt like jumping from his chest.

"Selling the five of you in the dark web, people like y'all worth a really big amount of money there" said Watch

Jaehyun felt like he just lost his abilities to think, to talk, to even breath, as if his heart missed a beat. Any normal person would experience what he was feeling when hearing that you were about to become the human in human trafficking.

"And we're here to film a preview video of you.. A good product needs a good ads" said Watch

Out of a sudden, someone from behind him, along with Watch, pulled him up harshly and violently slammed his body to the table before him and he shrieked in pain.

That person held him on the table, pressing his arms on his back strongly as he saw Watch starting to tie his hands to each of the table legs.

"Let me go!!" yelled Jaehyun out of fear, shock, and pain.

He struggled against the man above him but the more he struggle the more his wounds got scraped open, even making some of them got worse.

Jaehyun failed miserably to hold his scream, loud whimpers were escaping his wounded lips.

He was really scared to death that he wished he was dead instead or at least be unconscious so he wouldn't have to deal with the pain.

Few minutes later, the man above him finally got off but right now his hands were tied really tightly, making sure his body from his hips upwards literally glued to the table and his feet were free but barely touching the ground.

So right now he was in prone position, the left side of his face was pressed down to the table. Jaehyun was trying really hard to slow down his breathing because he was starting to having a panic attack and that wouldn't do him any good.

Just when he thought he could breath for a second, Hobble as in the man who held him down, he couldn't believe he was outmatched by a limping man, pulled his t-shirt up.

That got him panicking again, the thought of what might happen terrorized him.

"Oh don't worry.." said Watch

"I'm not gonna do whatever you think I'm about to do to you" said Watch, chuckling evilly

"I want to but I can't do that because it'll make you worth less" said Watch, "I'm gonna make you a moaning pain with another way"

"Bring it here" ordered Watch to Hobble

"Please, don't hurt me.." begged Jaehyun, fear overwhelmed him.

Then it happened,

A few drops of unknown liquid came in contact with his open wounds on his back that sent him screaming hysterically in an instant.

"It's a mix of salt, lemon, and water, how you like that?" asked Watch as he poured more on Jaehyun's back.

Jaehyun was writhing around really hard, trying to stop the pain but he couldn't, even his free legs were proved to do nothing useful.

He never experienced this kind of pain before and he would definitely choose death over this.

On the other side, hearing the roaring screams of Jaehyun made Wooyoung and Dino stood up immediately. They went to the door and banged the door with their hands loudly.

"Leave him alone!!" yelled Dino

"Open this door!! Jaehyun ah!!" yelled Wooyoung

But they were left ignored, no matter how loud they screamed.

Meanwhile Jaehyun's vision was mostly blurred by his own tears, his breathing got ragged, and he felt more weak than ever.

"Please...stoph.." cried Jaehyun, he felt so drained out.

"But we just began" said Watch as he without pity poured a large amount of the liquid on his back from the top to the bottom, sending Jaehyun screaming at the top of his lungs agian.

He even choked on his own breath, even so Watch put his hand on his wound and pressed it. Maybe he didn't press hard but it still hurt like hell to him.

His legs was barely holding himself up, he was now completely leaning on the table weakly.

"Do you want more?..... I think you do" said Watch

"N..no..no.." sobbed Jaehyun

"Don't cry, this is not the mix anymore... Don't be scared.." said Watch before began to laugh, "But this is alcohol"

Jaehyun didn't even have the chance to say another word when he poured the whole bottle down. 

His whole back was burning and he had lost his strength to the pain and screaming.

**End of flashback**

When they saw him laying weakly on the table, Watch gave a sign to Hobble and then Hobble cut the rope on Jaehyun's hands, only for Watch to flip his body around.

Another whimper of pain escaped his mouth as his bleeding back touched the cold metal of the table hard.

His front was just badly wounded as his back and Watch was about to give it the same treatment as he roughly pulled his t-shirt up.

"No.. please..." pleaded Jaehyun, "No.. more.." 

Without words, Watch poured another bottle of alcohol to his body. For the nnth time, he let out a big cry and that was all he could do.

It felt like fire and Jaehyun was sure that he would definitely lost his voice after screaming so much.

Then in the midst of his pain, he heard the sound of camera clicking and when he opened his eyes a bit, he saw Hobble taking pictures of his body. Maybe they took photos too of his back earlier but he was too in pain to notice.

"We're done, bring him to Boss!" ordered Watch.

The next thing he knew that two people was holding him up in the air, so there was a third person there, probably being the cameraman.

He was barely conscious and they didn't even bother of putting the blindfold on his eyes anymore.

Jaehyun tried to walk but his legs gave up that the two men were literally dragging him.

Meanwhile Haknyeon and Mark were still at the floor but Haknyeon had sat up this time, they could only stay still while hearing the screams of pain from their friend because guns were now pointed at them.

Finally, when Short and Hobble walked in, dragging a semi conscious Jaehyun, they quickly stood up.

"It's done Boss" said Hobble.

"Good" said Boss

They shoved Jaehyun right to the other two who thankfully were able to catch the limping body.

"Help me... help me please... help me.." cried Jaehyun

Their hearts broke seeing their friend's state, it was really concerning.

"I'm here, Jaehyun ah.. I'm here" said Haknyeon

"Have you taken pictures as well?" asked Boss and Watch nodded.

"Good, now bring them back" said Boss

Mark and Haknyeon quickly put on the blindfold, their priority was Jaehyun.

As they walked back, they were literally carrying the semi-conscious boy.

"Jaehyun ah, what did they do to you?" sobbed Mark.

__________________________________________________

  
Hyunjae recalled Sangyeon telling them that Wooyung called Ateez yesterday so they should be more aware incase an unknown number called their cellphone.

Which was the case now for Hyunjae who was staring at his phone screen. His finger rather shakily clicked the green button.

" _ **Hyunjae hyung?**_ " Hyunjae couldn't believe his own ears, it was really Haknyeon. He could recognize his voice anywhere.

"Haknyeon ah!" Hyunjae ran to the living room as he called his name and that made the rest immediately gathered around the phone.

" _ **Yes hyung, it's me.. Haknyeon..**_ " he didn't sound well, " _ **I miss you hyung..**_ "

"Haknyeon ah..." called Sangyeon.

" _ **Hyung...**_ " sobbed Haknyeon, his voice wavering and it all was clear their ears.

Then they heard the sound of two knocks, of course Haknyeon wasn't alone.

"We will get you back Haknyeon ah, we promise you" said Jacob 

" _ **He.. He wants me to inform you... the location for you to put the money bag..**_ " Haknyeon sobs got louder.

"Okay, it's alright... We're listening Haknyeon ah" said Sangyeon, trying to calm him down.

Haknyeon told them two locations and Chanhee quickly wrote it down.

"Alright, we'll pass this information to the other groups" said Sangyeon

" _ **I.. I love you all... Please tell my family too..**_ " 

Most of them cried because hearing that, this couldn't be happening.

" _ **Hyung me too.."**_ they heard a small voice on the background.

" _ **Please tell NCT and Mark's family too.."**_ said Haknyeon

"We will see... What is that?!!!"

Sangyeon was saying something when a high pitched sound of scream broke in followed with a loud whimpered. Honestly the screams made their blood ran cold.

" _ **WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HIM?!!!**_ "

They were shocked to hear the screams followed by Haknyeon yelling.

"What the hell happened? Haknyeon ah?" asked Kevin

" _ **JAEHYUN!!**_ " 

"Oh no, Jaehyun hyung...." gasped Eric

" _ **Sit down!**_ " an unfamiliar voice cut in.

" _ **NO!! Let me see him!!**_ " the knew that Haknyeon was fighting them right now, they could hear him.

Then they heard more screaming, it sounded like Jaehyun was going under an unbearable amount of pain.

" _ **Let me go you fucker!!**_ " yelled Haknyeon 

This time their attentions shifted back to Haknyeon.

When suddenly the sound of a strong punch followed by the sound of a weigh hitting the ground was heard and they heard nothing from Haknyeon.

"Haknyeon ah!" shouted Juyeon but he got no response.

"Don't hurt him!" yelled Sangyeon

That was when more sound of beatings came into their hearings and it scared them because they could heard Haknyeon whimpering and asking for help.

"Haknyeon ah! Don't hurt him please!!" yelled Sangyeon

The next thing they knew was that the call had ended.

"No! No!" yowled Hyunjae, "Haknyeon hyung.." gasped Sunwoo, his eyes were super wet from tears.

"Damn it!!" cursed Sangyeon

"No.." sobbed Eric loudly

What did they just witness?

"We... we need inform Golden Child's member about this" said Changmin

"And we have to deliver Mark's message too" said Younghoon.

"Who will do it?" asked Chanhee

"I'll do it all" said Sangyeon

"No, I'll help you" said Jacob

It was the best to let the two oldest member handled it.

All the ten members felt the same frustration raging inside them because they could only listen as their member suffered.

They were freaking useless and it angered them so much.

.

.

.

To be continued


	7. Aftermath

"Hyung, how did it go?" asked Jangjun as he saw his leader entering the house.

"I can't imagine what they must be feeling right now" said Donghyun

Daeyeol had to sit for hours as he tried to console Jaehyun's parents, mostly his mother. He didn't have to but he felt responsible so he took the duty to inform Jaehyun's parents about the abduction.

The light inside their eyes went out immediately and he witnessed it all. Jaehyun's mother even tried to call Jaehyun's phone, she refused to believe that.

He recalled Jaehyun's father being upset about the police decision.

_**"Why can't I pay? I can provide ten billions in one night and we can save them all" said Jaehyun's father** _

_**"Yes Uncle, but the police said that they will rescue them without us paying and we can't pay them because giving money to people like them will only lead something worse" expalined Daeyeol** _

_**"We're talking about people's life, my son's life.." said Jaehyun's father** _

_**"Trust me, Sir... I hate this as much as you do" said Daeyeol** _

_**Then Jaehyun's father stormed out of the room, leaving a devastated Jaehyun's mother alone with him.** _

_**"Daeyeol ah, Jaehyun will be fine, right?" asked Jaehyun's mother** _

_**Daeyeol believed it was good a decision that he kept the information about Jaehyun's state from his parents because that would only make them shatter into pieces.** _

_**"We all are praying for him, Aunty" said Daeyeol as he held Jaehyun's mother's hands.** _

And that was how two hours went by with Daeyeol sitting next to the crying lady.

"But they're strong" said Jibeom

"Uncle even told me that he's willing to pay all the ransom" said Daeyeol

"So do we" said Sungyoon

"And there's one more thing that I need to inform all of you" said Daeyeol, "Sangyeon called me earlier"

"Alright, we're listening" said Jangjun, the air started to get pretty tense there.

"Can you all gather here first?" asked Daeyeol

"Okay, Seungmin ah! Bomin ah! Youngtaek ah! Joochan ah! Come here all of you!" yelled Jangjun

And only after all of them were set on the living room, then Daeyeol began,

"It's about Jaehyun...." his expression frowned further.

__________________________________________________

  
"Jaehyun..." gasped Wooyoung as he saw the boy limping while being carried by Mark and Haknyeon

But it wasn't just Jaehyun who's hurt, the three of them had visible bruises, concerning injuries. 

Jaehyun was whimpering at every moves he made, it was really bad.

"His wounds are bleeding again" said Dino

"Lay him down slowly" said Wooyoung

Haknyeon and Mark carried Jaehyun to the mattress but when they laid Jaehyun down, it only made him wince further.

A strong smell of lemon and salt hit their noses as they realized what had happened.

"What did they do to you?" asked Dino, frowning

"Look at his wrists... He was tied.." said Wooyoung, referring to the rope print on his wrists.

"Those sons of bithches.." uttered Haknyeon under his breath

"Oh no.." gasped Dino

"Hurts.." groaned Jaehyun

"I think we shouldn't lay him down, his back and his front are bleeding.. Let's put him on sitting position and you two hold him up" said Dino

"Okay" said Mark and Haknyeon and they both gently pulled Jaehyun up.

"I can smell the lemon and salt on his clothes, I think that's maybe why he was still hurting" said Mark

"Hurts.." cried Jaehyun, "Help me..." pleaded Jaehyun

"Let's change his clothes" said Haknyeon

"With what? We can't leave him shirtless... It's cold here and he'll get sick" said Wooyoung

"With mine.... Dino ya, hold him" said Haknyeon.

"But I don't think we should cover his wounds with any fabric at all" said Mark

"But it's really dusty here and the dust would definitely enter his open wounds" said Dino

"Alright, none of us know exactly what to do so what's the best option?" asked Wooyoung

"Let's just change his clothes first" said Haknyeon

"Alright then" said Dino as he changed his position with Haknyeon

"I'm sorry Jaehyun ah" said Wooyoung as he pulled Jaehyun's clothes off with the help of Dino and Mark. He tried to be as smooth as he could but he couldn't avoid the friction from the contact.

"sshhhh...sshhh... It'll be over soon" said Mark, calming Jaehyun down.

"My... body... burns.." winced Jaehyun

Haknyeon quickly pulled his t-shirt off and put it on Haknyeon gently. 

"Here.." said Wooyoung, giving Jaehyun's clothes to Haknyeon after he was done.

"Thank you" said Haknyeon

Jaehyun was still whimpering but less so it was a good thing that they did that. His head fell forward and Wooyoung led it to lay on his shoulder.

"Now let's clean your wounds, both of you" said Wooyoung, "Dino ya grab the water, I'll hold Wooyoung" 

"Okay" said Dino, after he left to the bathroom, Haknyeok took his place back beside Jaehyun.

"What happened?" asked Dino after he was back with the bowl of water.

"They made Haknyeon call his members to inform the location for the money but then we heard Jaehyun's screams.." said Mark

"And I lost control so I kinda fought them but obviously they outmatched me so they beat me up instead" said Haknyeon

"I tried to help him but the man who was holding me did this instead" said Mark, pointing to his injuries.

"I'm sorry... I just... I can't help myself when I heard his screams... I'm so sorry Mark... You could've died" apologized Haknyeon

"I don't blame you on anything, Haknyeon ah... I understand why you did what you did" said Mark, "I would've done the same if it was my best friend too"

"Thank you for understanding....." said Haknyeon

Dino washed the blood of the other two's skin, it didn't wash off completely but at least it was better than before.

"Jaehyun ah, you can go to sleep" said Mark

"No.." whispered Jaehyun, "I need... to tell...you...something" he struggled between his breath.

"You can tell us later" said Wooyoung

"No!" said Jaehyun

"They..they want.. to sell... us..in..the dark web.." finally Jaehyun said it out.

For a good five seconds no one was talking, like absorbing the information took more time than usual. They froze and not knowing what to do with that information.

"That's why...they... filmed me.. being tortured" said Jaehyun

Their bodies were already weak from not getting any nutrition for over two days and now, they felt like all strengths left just vanished into thin air.

"But they promised to set us free after the ransom is paid.." said Dino

"They said.... if.. something goes wrong..or..if the Boss just... changes his mind.." said Jaehyun

"Fuck him!" cursed Wooyoung

"What should we do?" asked Mark, tears was present on his eyes.

But no one knew about what to do, they were helpless under their controls.

"Let's escape from here" said Haknyeon in a low voice.

"How? We couldn't exactly walk through the front door just like that" said Dino

"We'll think of a plan but first, at least we know where we are" said Haknyeon

"We do?" asked Mark

As expected, only Mark and Dino who appeared to be surprised.

"Wait..but I don't know if what... I saw.. was true.." cut Jaehyun

"I think it's real and we've been in the area before, the condition suits" said Wooyoung

"What are you three talking about?" asked Dino

"Here" said Wooyoung as he approached Dino's ears.

"We're in Yeosu" whispered Wooyoung and Dino's eyes went bigger.

Then Wooyoung approach Mark and whispered the same thing.

"We need to plan something" said Wooyoung

"But we might actually die from doing that" said Haknyeon

"Better die trying, right?" asked Mark

"Maybe... I don't know honestly..." said Wooyoung

"Hey, Jaehyun's asleep" informed Dino as he saw Jaehyun's eyes close.

"I think we all need to rest, for now" said Wooyoung, "Especially you three"

"He's right, go rest..Wooyoung and I will hold Jaehyun" said Dino

"Are you sure? I can be awake for few more hours" said Haknyeon

"Yes, just rest" said Wooyoung

"Okay, thank you" said Haknyeon

Mark and Haknyeon went to lay down next to each other since the room was getting more cold and they got no blankets or hot pack.

__________________________________________________

  
"We have the location, let's collect the money and put it there" said Yuta

"But the police said..." said Ten

"I don't care what the police said" cut Yuta

"Besides it hasn't been four day yet" said Jaehyun

"I just want our Mark back" said Yuta, he looked really tense.

"We all do, Yuta ya" said Johnny

"What if he's badly hurt?" asked Yuta

"Don't.. Don't do if.." said Jungwoo, shaking his head.

"I believe the police is doing their best to bring out Mark home" said Taeyong

"Well not good enough" said Yuta before he stormed out of there, he needed to calm himself down alone.

"Yuta ya.." called Taeyong

"It's okay, let him be" said Taeil

"I understand his anger" said Kun

"Don't we all?" asked Winwin, he glanced at where Yuta had previously left to.

It was truly a challenge for Taeyong to inform the rest of NCT's members about Mark. The Dream members took the news really bad, Chenle and Jisung bursted out crying immediately and they refused to eat. 

And worse when he heard from Ateez's leader that one of them was being threatened by a knife and it could be Mark, he couldn't do anything about it.

There were so much regrets and questions flying around their minds.

"What do you think he's doing right now?" asked Doyoung 

"I don't know, wishing for us to safe him?" said Lucas

"Yeah, likely" said Johnny

"Where's Donghyuck?" asked Taeyong

"With the rest of Dream's members" said Jaehyun, "Still trying to calm Jisung and Chenle"

"I think we should get back too to WayV's dorm, it's getting pretty late" said Kun, "I'll talk to Chenle and Jisung in the morning if he still refused to eat"

"I'll help" said Winwin

"Let's go" said Kun

"Okay" said Ten, Lucas, and Winwin

"Keep us posted, yeah?" asked Kun

"Will do" said Taeyong

Right now, only the group's members and the agencies who knew about the abduction while the rest of the world was in the dark, the excuse they made was hiatus due health problem and they liked to keep it that way.

_No need for a world chaos._

__________________________________________________

  
Several hours later, Jaehyun woke up to Wooyoung and Dino on his sides, he seemed to be more in awake state than before.

"Hey" said Dino

"Hey" said Jaehyun weakly

"How are you feeling? Is the pain still too much?" asked Wooyoung

"Not as bad as before, I guess" said Jaehyun, "Guys, I think I can lie on my side now" said Jaehyun, he didn't want to burden them further.

"Are you sure?" asked Wooyoung, "Yeah" answered Jaehyun.

"Okay, slowly" said Wooyoung

Wooyoung and Dino helped Jaehyun to lay down gently, they should have compressed his wounds with ice but clearly they couldn't find one, and not even pain killer.

Jaehyun winced as soon as his body made contact, "Do you want to sit up again?" asked Wooyoung

"No.." said Jaehyun, determined to do this.

Jaehyun was laying down on his left side, he whimpered but stayed still.

Fortunately, the wounds on his sides weren't that bad, "You good?" asked Wooyoung

"Yeah.. It hurts much less and much bearable" said Jaehyun

"Glad to hear that" said Dino

"I'm really sorry that you have to go through under those horrible things" said Wooyoung

"Don't be, it's not your fault and.... I'll survive" said Jaehyun

"I'm more afraid to think what they will do next to any of you" said Jaehyun

"Yeah, me too" said Wooyoung

"If only all of this was a really really bad dream" said Dino, "Then the only thing we need to do is wake up"

"Yeah, if only" said Jaehyun

"Do you know how long I was out?" asked Jaehyun

"Few hours, don't know the exact number" said Dino

"Do you want water?" asked Wooyoung

"No, thank you" said Jaehyun

"You should rest again Jae" said Dino

"I'm really sorry guys" said Jaehyun

"For?" asked Din

"For being so weak, I'm such a burden" said Jaehyun

"C'mon, don't say that" said Wooyoung

"Yeah, you've been strong the whole time, you're the strongest person I know" said Wooyoung

"Thank you, that means a lot to me" said Jaehyun

.

.

.

To be continued

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who is excited for Kingdom? *scream* Tell me who you are rooting for in the comment below 😘😘😘😘😘
> 
> And I know some of us are really devastated by all the bullying scandals in the Kpop industry right now.
> 
> So I want to ask you to be strong and I'm sure the truth will come out eventually, good or bad.


	8. Wooyoung's Turn

"Guys, guys.." called Haknyeon

"Yeah, what's wrong?" asked Wooyoung, frowning because he sensed something wrong from his tone.

"Mark's warm, he is too warm" said Haknyeon, he had his hands on Mark's skin, trying to feel the radiating heat.

Haknyeon just woke up when his hand accidentally came in contact with Mark's forehead as he was stretching.

"Huh? You sure?" asked Wooyoung as he quickly approached them.

"Feel for yourself" said Haknyeon

"What's wrong?" asked Dino who was woken up.

"He's having a fever" said Wooyoung

"He's what?" asked Jaehyun who was woken up too from the noises

Thankfully now Jaehyun could sit up on his own even though it was still hurt.

"He's having a fever, his body is burning" said Haknyeon, "And he is sweating a lot too even though it's cold here"

Now that they were watching him closely, they could see him shivering too but the sweat ran down profusely and they got no blanket or jacket to warm him.

"He should've said something" said Haknyeon

"Yeah, it looks like he's been holding in inside" said Dino, no one caught a fever in a blink.

"I think part of it is because he hasn't eaten for more than two days, even longer from us" said Jaehyun

"I get that he must've thought that he couldn't be a burden too but it's not right" said Haknyeon, he was worried sick about Mark and also feeling guilty since the fresh wound the boy got might add to the cause of his fever.

So partly, Mark's fever was Haknyeon's fault too.

"What do we do now?" asked Jaehyun

"I guess we have to wait for the fever to go away by itself" said Wooyoung

"And if it doesn't?" asked Dino

No one answer that

"From now on, if you guys are feeling sick, just be straight with all of us" said Haknyeon

"Okay" agreed the rest.

No one could catch any sleep again after that, there were too much things to be worried about. 

Sleep, it was not a priority right now.

They didn't know the correct way to treat a fever but they was trying to make use of what they got.

Right now, there was a damp cloth on Mark's forehead, the guy hadn't opened his eyes since he had fallen asleep. But actually, he was quite delirious in his sleep, calling for his mother.

He looked so fragile, laying there unconscious while occasionally whimpering in his sleep.

The other three took turn on changing the cloth, Jaehyun wanted to but he was barely able to move.

When Wooyoung was changing the damp cloth, Mark unconsciously brought his hand to hold Wooyoung's. He grabbed his hand and pulled it closer to his chest, like a child holding his mother's hand.

"It's okay, Mark.. You'll be okay" said Wooyoung as he stroke Mark's hair with his free hand. 

He just stayed there, kept caressing his head, it was the least he could do for his hurting friend.

"How is he?" asked Dino

"His fever is still high" said Wooyoung, "How's your wound?" asked Wooyoung

"It has dried up, no blood coming out anymore, I'll be fine" said Dino

"You?" asked Wooyoung to Haknyeon

"Still sore but I'll survive" said Haknyeon

"Jaehyun ah?" asked Wooyoung

"I.. I don't know... I just want to give up.." said Jaehyun but it came out as a whisper. Suddenly he felt like he couldn't do this anymore, he just wanted this to be over.

"I wanna go home" said Dino out of sudden, a tear escaped his eye.

Truthfully speaking, they all had been pretending to be strong but really, inside, a dam of tears was at the edge of breaking. None of them were okay inside, the trauma was overwhelming.

All of them were at the edge of breaking, they were badly hurting.

"Me too.." whispered Jaehyun

"I don't want to die.." Haknyeon's tears were escaping his eyes too, none of them did.

After a while, Mark's grip loosened up and Wooyoung was able to pull his hand off then he moved to sit next to Dino, leaning on the wall.

"And I'm starving too, we haven't eaten and I think it's approaching three days" said Haknyeon

Then they become alerted again as they heard footsteps coming closer, cutting their conversation off.

It was Giant again, still wearing black clothes and black ski mask. There was a slight curiosity in their minds regarding his face behind that mask but remembering that knowing his face could lead to their death, that curiosity died instantly.

"Our friend is sick, he needs medicine" said Dino but Giant ignored him.

"Let's go you!" said Giant, tossing the black blindfold to the ground.

Who was he pointing to at this time?

"What do you want with me?" asked Wooyoung

"You'll find out soon enough, just let's go before I use force" said Giant

Wooyoung took a deep breath before putting the blindfold on.

"Be careful Wooyoung ah" said Haknyeon

The room was tense as soon as Wooyoung had left.

" _Where's Wooyoung?_ " 

"Mark, you're awake... Thanks Goodness!" cried Dino, relieved.

They saw Mark in a half-sitting position, his elbows were supporting him as he was trying to sit up.

Dino and Haknyeon quickly ran to Mark to help the boy, "We are so worried about you" said Haknyeon

"I'm sorry.." said Mark

"No need, we're just glad you're awake now" said Jaehyun 

"Do you want water?" asked Dino

"Please.." said Mark, weakly, "Okay, I'll get you some" said Dino

"Where's Wooyoung?" asked Mark

"They took him.." said Jaehyun, frowning again.

On the other side, Wooyoung tried to use all of his senses at his best. People say when one of your senses is blocked, the other senses become sharper.

According to what Jaehyun told him, there was a big chance he was taken to the same room as Jaehyun and not the room he had been before.

That also meant he was about to face something horrible that he was even too scared to think about it.

As the strong smell of musty hit his nose, he knew that he was there.

Giant made him walk to the centre of the room. Then he felt something being pressed against the back of his body, around his waist.

" _Do as I said and I won't have to fire this gun_ " 

It wasn't Giant's voice anymore, he never heard the voice but maybe it belonged to Watch since he was the one who tortured Jaehyun.

"Do you understand?"

Wooyoung nodded slowly, of course he understood that.

Soon after, he felt a pair of hand touching the hem of his clothes before sliding it upwards that sent him taken aback a lot.

"No!" rejected Wooyoung and only for the man to press the gun again, harder.

Wooyoung was defeated, he let whoever that was to pull his t-shirt off his body. He could only accepted his fate in despair.

He shivered a bit as he felt the cold hitting his smooth skin, his soon not smooth anymore skin.

"On your knees" he heard the voice and he did just that.

"No! What are you doing?!" protested Wooyoung hard as he felt panic rising really fast.

From both of his side, at the same time, his hands were brought up to be tied with a rope, he could feel the rough texture of the rope rubbing against his wrist.

"No please!!" cried Wooyoung

Right now, his position was resembling a letter Y. His tears was leaking through the blindfold, this whole thing was making his blood ran cold.

For a good ten seconds, he heard nothing but his cries, until

All he could felt in the next second was the sudden burning sensation as a hard flexible thing hit his skin.

The scene was familiar but he only saw it as the bystander not the victim.

Wooyoung was currently being lashed just like Jaehyun before.

"Aakhh!!" yelped Wooyoung in pain.

His body was jerked forward but didn't fall to the ground because the rope that was holding him.

Then another lash landed on his back, it hurt way more that he spitted out some salivas.  
  
"STOPKHH!!!" screamed Wooyoung in terror as the man just lashed him again.

But the purpose of this was to film his suffer so why would they stop now.

He was suddenly thinking about Jaehyun, somehow that boy had been able to hold his screams back even though he eventually gave up. Yet Wooyoung, he couldn't swallow his scream at all, right from the first lash. 

It was too painful to stay quiet.

The man kept lashing his back, pretty sure he was bleeding by now.

"Please...Stopphh.." choked Wooyoung out.

His breathing got ragged, his vision was completely blurred by his own tears

"No moreh...akhhh.. Please!!!" begged Wooyoung

Then one lash came, hitting his back real hard, even more painful than the before ones. He forgot to breath for two seconds.

Wooyoung didn't count how many lashes he got but it was long enough for his knees to hurt and go weak from kneeling the whole time.

The man who was lashing him went close before harshly tugging his hair behind, making him looked up.

He let out a groan as the man was grabbing his hair quite hard.

"Smile for the camera pretty boy" said the man that sent shivers down his spine.

But he was too in pain to move his face muscle so he just did nothing but maybe the camera caught the agony in his face instead, anyway, the man finally let his hair go and his head fell down weakly.

He thought that it was finally over but he was proven really wrong when one strong lash came in contact with his back, then another one and another one.

"That's 28 lashes for the pretty boy" said the man

Then it was finally over, the rope on his hands were suddenly cut and his body fell forward in an instant.

"Bring him back" said the man.

He felt his body being lifted and was put in a firefighter carry position. From the height, he could tell that Giant was the one who threw him over his shoulder.

Wooyoung could feel that he was about to pass out, his eyelids were getting heavier second by second.

His blindfold wasn't even on as Giant carried him back but even then, he was too distracted by the pain to watch his surroundings.

Even when they arrived, he was seconds from slipping into the darkness.

He barely remembered Giant tossing him down to the hard and cold ground, don't forget that he was still shirtless, the cold hit him straight.

Giant threw his grey t-shirt to the floor before leaving them again, locked in that room.

Meanwhile, the other four suffered as well as they heard the screams from their friend and could only do nothing.

The screams, even if it wasn't loud as Jaehyun's before, were clear to their ears. In the middle of that agonizing session, Dino even curled up into a ball, resting his head on his knees as he covered his ears with his own shaking hands, couldn't bare to hear him longer.

No one knew for how long but their best guess was close to an hour before the screams died and not long after Giant walked in carrying a shirtless Wooyoung.

His back was bleeding badly and he was hardly awake.

Giant put him on the floor and threw his clothes too before leaving them just like that.

"Oh no... Wooyoung ah" gasped Jaehyun

Haknyeon and Dino carried Wooyoung to lay next to Mark whose fever was still high but awake.

"Shouldn't we dress him up again?" asked Jaehyun

"After we clean his wounds" said Haknyeon as Dino was getting the clean water.

Mark was still weak and looking pale but he wanted to take care of his friend, he wanted to be useful.

Rope was still hanging on Wooyoung's wrists so Mark untied them gently. When he took it off, he could see the red marks resting there clearly.

"The wounds are only on his back" said Jaehyun, after examining Wooyoung.

"I don't know whether we should be grateful for that fact alone..." said Dino

"He's out" said Mark, seeing Wooyoung's eyes that were now fully-closed.

"Alright, let's get this done quickly and dress him back again" said Haknyeon

They all were hungry, in pain, shrouded in fear, and frustated. 

At this point, being numb seemed like a better choice than being surrounded by those feelings. 

__________________________________________________

_**How much longer?** _

_**I need more time, I have to find who's dirty first or else it will end in vain.** _

_**We don't have much time, be quick!** _

.

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To be continued


	9. Whose Turn Right Now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you start, I want to tell all of you something
> 
> I'm feeling really thankful and happy with all the comments I got, this is my first story that get many comments. I'm so moved to tears because of that.
> 
> And I want you all to know that even if I didn't reply to your comment, I still keep every single of them in my heart to keep me motivated and happy because your opinion matters a lot for me 💖💖💖💖
> 
> Now let's get started with this chapter

" **Hah...hhahhh...hahhh....uukkhhh...ukhhhh** "

The sound of someone desperately trying to breathe in deep echoed throughout the room, followed by the sound of rough coughing.

It all came from a man whose hands and feet were tied to a chair along with a black blindfold that covered his eyes completely, leaving him with a limited movement and a dark vision.

There was another person in the room who was standing right next to the tied man with rope hanging down from between his fingers. His face was covered with a black ski mask but even if he wasn't wearing a mask, the tied man still wouldn't be able to recognize him. 

"Take a closeup shoot" he spoke for the first time, the tied man never heard him before but then again, he never heard all of his abductors voice, just most of them but not all.

Sound of footsteps came into his hearing, just how many people in that room?

"Stoppkhh..." said the tied man, his voice was coarse as he tried to plead him to stop. 

"Good product don't speak unless you are told to"

"You're sick psycho! You all are sick!!" spit the tied man, what a foolish decision, to waste his energy for cursing at them. They deserved it but he better save up his energy for trying to stay alive.

Since he couldn't see at all, there was no way he could have known of what was about to befall on him, though he should've predicted it.

A really hard slap came upon his left cheek, sending his head turning to the right. The red mark showed up almost instantly after as the effect.

He was so shocked that he could only groaned in pain as his eyes were prickled with tears because his left cheek was now throbbing in pain. 

It hurt terribly, no one ever hit him that hard.

Alongside his cheek, his neck was badly hurting too. Not only from the strangulation he just got but also from the fact that the rope scraped his dried wound again.

There was a deep long red mark on his neck with small droplets of blood dripping from his old wound on his neck, the wound which had started to heal only to be opened again.

"Why are you doing this to me?!!" screamed the tied man, "Let me go you psycho son of a bitch!!" 

With that, another strong slap was given to the same spot as before. It hurt so bad that more tears escaped his eyes.

A hand came from behind his head, grabbing a fist full of his hair and pulling his head back.

He could feel a head leaning closer to the side of his face, "Better drop the shitty attitude or else..."

The man didn't continue but the boy got what he meant perfectly. It wasn't death that was implied in his threat, it was something worse than death. Being engulfed in pain until the point of dying but still breathing.

He cried harder at that, the cloth on his eyes was wet and some of his tears leaked to his cheeks.

One hour, that was the exact time he had been sitting in that chair although it felt way longer for him.

His lower body almost went numb for sitting so long but that wasn't his biggest worry at the moment.

"Just kill me now...." said the tied man, almost sounded like he was begging or maybe he was.

"Not that easy..... Lee Chan" he sensed the man moving again.

"You're not gonna die... Not in my hands at least, that's not my job" said the man, it sent shivers running down to his spine and cold sweats running down on his forehead.

When Giant had taken him from his friends, all he could think was that his time had come. He didn't know what they would do to him and he was scared to death.

Being clueless as hell was something he disliked so much.

The moment he was brought into this room, the same room where Wooyoung and Jaehyun experienced the worst moment of their lives, by Giant, he was immediately being forced to sit on a chair as someone tied his hands and feet.

And the next thing he knew was a cord being wrapped around his neck from behind before it was given a pressure, blocking his air supply. It all happened without any warning, he wasn't ready.

Dino was choking so bad that he thought maybe this was how his life would end but whoever doing this to him seemed to have another plan.

One moment he was being throttled with a rope then one moment after, the pressure was off. The man kept doing that, not caring that his face had gone pale in the process.

It was all just a game for the man.

He desperately gasped for air and only after he was looking like passing out that the man loosened up the cord.

Midway, Dino realized that he could only let out a small sobs as he surrendered to his fate.

"We need more" he heard another voice there, bringing him back to reality.

More, what could it possibly mean? What kind of sick people got satisfaction from seeing a person being strangled.

Then he felt something being wrapped against his neck again but this time it wasn't rope anymore, no, it couldn't be rope.

It was human fingers, all ten of them.

The fingers started to tighten around his neck, beginning to grip his neck hard.

Dino tried to inhale air through his mouth but it was nearly impossible to, he was begging for air.

The Seventeen's maknae was trashing around in that chair, trying to get the hands off his neck.

Clearly his efforts was useless as he was outstrong by the man's strength.

Freaking helpless, perfect words to describe what he was under their controls.

Pretty sure that the rope on his wrists and ankles had left more than just a simple line of red mark as a result from him struggling. He was seconds aways from slipping into a unconscious state.

And then just like that, the pressure was suddenly off and the hands left his neck. Again, he was trying to absorb air with all power he got left.

Dino was coughing and trying to breathe at the same time, it was kinda hard.

His body was leaning forward, he couldn't sit up straight anymore.

At this point, the air seemed to be sweeter than any honey he had tasted and he didn't want to lose it.

"P..please...ukkkhh.. enough...ukkhhh" pleaded Dino, his eyes were now completely wet with tears.

The lack of air had started to cause him feeling light headed too. Dino was also feeling like reaching his own limits very soon, the man did say that he wouldn't kill him but he never said anything about accidentally doing it. 

Still, at least that way, his suffering would end and he could finally rest.

Rest sounded very tempting right now but he knew better it was something he wouldn't get at all.

Now that come to think of it, he couldn't tell if this was any better than lashing but either way, death seemed to be a more appealing idea at the moment.

The fingers was back and started to tighten again as he felt the air leaving his body. It was becoming another round of game for him.

When the man finally let go of his neck for the nnth time, he didn't have the strength left to even speak.

His body slumped on the chair and his vision started to blur both by the tears and the dizziness. His head fell down as he was still trying to breathe normally again.

If he thought that it was over then he was so wrong.

Something was being dragged closer to where he was, most likely a table, from the sound. He could tell that the table was now in front of him.

His heart missed a beat at the tension he was having right now. 

What else now?

The rope on his left wrist was suddenly cut and he could move his hand freely again but not for long because the man roughly grabbed his arm and placed it on the table in a supine position.

Dino tried to say something but he was still trying to catch his breath and he was still too weak to fight him.

Soon after, he heard something, it was small, like a click of something and it was familiar but he couldn't really remember from where.

The tension grew even higher as time went by because still nothing happened.

That was till he felt a sudden stinging pain on his forearm, it literally took only one second for him to realize what the man was doing to him.

"Aakhhh!!" yelped Dino in pain

The man was carving something on his forearm with what he guessed as a pen because if it was knife then it surely would hurt less than this.

"Stopp!!" cried Dino, it was really painful.

The tip of the pen was very sharp so it could be a reed pen, a quill, a dip pen, a fountain pen, or a ruling pen. Cursed his overloading knowledge of kinds of pens.

In short, those pens had something in common which was they all had a narrow and sharp tip that was used for the ink.

Dino felt like he just lost the air he barely gained back because the pen was keen but still more blunt than a knife so that it hurt way more, maybe that was the purpose.

Here's the thing, Dino was never good with pain. There was more than one time when a small cut made him cry even though no one had witnessed that.

He could started to feel the blood dripping from his wounds.

Didn't how long it last but by the time the man finally stopped, Dino was really drained out, his arm and his neck were throbbing in pain.

Lee Chan was in agony.

"We're done" said the man

Words he desperately wanted to hear from much earlier.

Then all at once he felt free, no more rope binding him to the chair even though the sore feeling was now present.

"We got enough for the video" he heard the man saying.

"Bring him back to the rest"

He was being pulled up by a sudden force, but since he got no strength left, his feet were literally being dragged.

Fortunately, Dino was still awake despite the torture he just received.

His breathing was getting better again, now he just needed to rest.

Then they stopped right before he heard the sound of door lock clicking, followed by a door being slammed open.

"Dino ya!" He knew that voice, it was Jaehyun in panic mode.

His blindfold was taken off briefly before he was thrown to the floor and the door behind him was closed again.

"Oh Lord, what did they do to you?" asked Haknyeon

He helped Dino up and led him to the mattress. Haknyeon, even though was injured too, was the only one left with a strength to walk freely.

"Oh no, your neck.... your arm... What the hell did they do to you?" said Jaehyun

"We couldn't hear you... We thought.. something bad happened" said Haknyeon, he helped to clean Dino's wound with clean water.

Even when he was being careful and gentle, Dino still hissed from the pain. The red line on Dino's neck surely didn't go unnoticed by them.

"What is this?" asked Haknyeon as he noticed something weird from the wound in his forearm. 

"They.. They engraved... something"

"Let me see" said Jaehyun, taking his arm

"0..2...11...9...9... Isn't this.."

"The date of my birth" hissed Dino, it was slightly blurred from the blood and all but he could tell perfectly that it was his birthdate.

"But why?" asked Jaehyun, he didn't understand the reason.

"Does it matter?" asked Dino

It didn't because everything was done, the wound would heal but the scar would always be there to remind him of the pain.

"How are Mark and Wooyoung?" asked Dino, he needed to distract himself.

"Wooyoung hasn't woken up at all while Mark, he's getting better but he will get worse again unless he eats something" said Haknyeon, "And so all we" he added.

"Guys... I just realized something" said Jaehyun that got Dino and Haknyeon looking at him.

"If I'm counting it correct, this could be the fourth day already" said Jaehyun

However a particular groan diverted their reactions from Jaehyun.  
  
"Wooyoung ah, how are you feeling?" asked Haknyeon as he came over to Wooyoung.

Seemed like that question had been said too much ever since they had awakened up in this room.

"Burn...hurts.." groaned Wooyoung, hours had passed but his wounds didn't get any better.

"We've cleaned your wounds but there's nothing that we could do to ease the pain, I'm sorry" said Haknyeon

"Dino ya, rest" said Jaehyun as he pushed his friend down.

"Okay" said Dino, he didn't reject the idea.

Wooyoung lift his clothes up, "What are you doing Wooyoung ah?" asked Jaehyun

"My t-shirt is pressing my wounds, this is better" said Wooyoung

"But the dust.." trailed Haknyeon off

"I don't care, I just want the pain to lessen" said Wooyoung

"Alright then" said Haknyeon, they didn't know what to do exactly but if Wooyoung thought that it was the best so let it be.

"I'll grab more water for Mark's compress" said Haknyeon

After that, silence swarmed over them again.

Dino laid down next to Jaehyun, his back was facing his friend. He curled into himself, in a position of a small ball.

In the silence, his mind wandered somewhere else.

The other Seventeen's members.

His family, he called them that proudly. Dino basically grew up with them so he could even say that he knew his hyungs better than his own biological brother. 

That was the truth.

And right now, he want his hyungs comforts desperately.

He missed hyungs so bad, all twelve of them. 

No chance to tell them that he loves every single of them. 

Love, a word he never said publicly to them because it was way too cringy for him but now he regretted it.

"Hyung.." whispered Dino as a tear fell from his eye.

__________________________________________________

  
**Five miles west from Sangam-dong, head to the foot of Yeongchwisan mountain in Yeosu. You shall find an old abandoned house, passing a canola flower field and hidden behind a big oak tree.**

**He will be moving them at 7 p.m then they will be gone and we won't be able to find them anymore.**

**I'm ditching this phone, he is starting to get suspicious of everyone. My cover is at risk, I can't blow up my cover**

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.

To be continued


	10. Escaping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the late update, school was kinda busy at the moment 🙏🙏🙏

"What did the police say, Seungcheol hyung?" 

"They said that they just got a major lead of Dino's whereabouts" answered Seungcheol, a hint of relief was shown on his face.

"Really?" asked Woozi, eyes lit up fast.

"Yes but we still need to wait a little more, they told us to be patient" said Seungcheol

"I can do that, if that means I can see him again" said Mingyu

"I.... I'm so happy..." said Jeonghan, he would be seeing his baby again soon.

"The only thing we can do right now is pray that everything will be fine" said Joshua

Ever since Dino went missing, the members had been taking turns to sleep on his bed. It was a small action but it helped a lot for their griefs.

And soon, they would be able to touch, to see, to talk to their maknae again, no longer in their imaginations only.

Yet the questions remained inside their heads as well,

_What trauma would their maknae bring back with him?_

_How could they help him? In what way? Or even could they help him at all?_

_What if the Dino that they got back was no longer their Dino? What should they do to bring their maknae back again?_

And the answers had a lot to do with uncertainties.

But despite all that, they at least still knew two things for sure.

They would still love him and would do anything for him.

__________________________________________________

  
Ju Haknyeon was kneeling on both knees on the ground, the hard surface felt cold against his skin.

You know, when he had decided to wear black jeans with a torn style, specifically on the knees, he definitely didn't count the possibility of being kidnapped back then.

His hands were on his sides, still hanging down free, at least, while the blindfold was still on, making sure he couldn't see nothing.

There was a slight fear in his mind that after all this, black would be a color he hated. But anyway, he could worry about that later.

It was about ten to twelve hours since Dino had come back with a engraving of his birthdate on his arm. 

Giant had come back only to bring him here. The rest had been awake when he left, even Mark and Wooyoung too.

His turn had arrived and that meant only Mark was left. It made him wonder what would happen after that.

Haknyeon was in that position for at least ten minutes already and still nothing happened.

If he made a list of things he disliked then waiting would be somewhere between the fourth or fifth. He surely had become agitated since the moment he got down.

Just then Haknyeon felt a presence coming closer, it was easy to tell, specially in this quiet room. Whoever that was, he, it was safe to say that it was most likely to be a man, was now standing in front of him.

And he was right because in the next second, his blindfold was taken off and he was able to see Watch standing before him.

That silver watch was still proudly resting on his owner's wrist. He tried to look closely, maybe he could learn what time it was now but the watch itself was not facing him, there was no way he could see the arrows, let alone in this dim light, unless Watch turned to his right.

"It's your turn now" his attention was drifted back to the man upon hearing his voice.

"What will you do to me?" asked Haknyeon, he managed to hide the fear in his tone.

"Something fun" was the answer he gave him.

The air was tense and so was he.

He just want it to be done quickly.

Watch walked away to the table on the other corner of the room behind him and Haknyeon used the time to obeserve the room.

To his left was the door, pretty much alike with the door of the room where they were being held and Giant, whose eyes were watching him, was leaning on that door.

To his front was a set up camera few feet away, besides that just an empty space.

He couldn't take a look at his behind, more like he didn't want to, where Watch was currently at but probably there wasn't much either.

It came to his conclusion that only Watch and Giant were there.

Seconds later he heard Watch approaching again but somehow it was like the man was walking really slow, he could tell because of the pause of every footstep he heard.

Haknyeon wanted to turn his head and see but he was too afraid. His heart beat really fast that he started to get dizzy.

In that nervewracking moment, he suddenly thought of The Boyz's members, his ten brothers, then his mother, the pain she would have to go through again just like when she lost her husband, his sisters, who he barely saw.

Not even he thought of himself, what pain would he has to face soon or maybe he indeed chose not to.

Right now, Watch was standing right behind him and Haknyeon was too lost in his train of thoughts to be aware of what was about to happen in the next five seconds.

Ju Haknyeon was brutally repealed from that train when a wave of frozen water hit his skin, well technically it was not frozen since the water was still liquid but it was stone cold.

The water was glacial that it felt painful against his body and his injuries.

Shock was present immediately as his breath got caught on his throat.

Watch just poured a bucket of icy water on him exactly from above the top of his head.

His clothes, actually Jaehyun's clothes which was literally torn here and there, was now very wet and sticked to his body. He looked like he just got out from a pool.

The cold felt way much worse right now that he was shaking badly.

"How's the shower? Refreshing, right?" he heard Watch saying.

Watch roughly grabbed his wet hair and pulled it to the back, making him look up to the ceilings. Haknyeon's both hands automatically held Watch's wrist to stop him from pulling his head more.

Then without any warning, something cold was pressed against his now wet right cheek, from the corner of his eyes, he could see that thing clearly.

It was a silver knife, looking so sharp and dangerously close to his eyes.

"Tell me how do you like to play with this?" asked Watch.

"Should we tie up your hands like the other? To show your potential buyers how helpless you can be?" whispered Watch, he sounded disgusting to Haknyeon's ears.

"No.." it came out as a desperate whisper from his mouth

"Then beg" said Watch, he played with the knife on his face, dragging the knife around but without any pressure.

No way he would do that, he'd rather choose death than that.

"Don't want to?" asked Watch and Haknyeon kept his mouth shut.

"Alright then, what if I hurt one of your friends, will you beg me to stop?" asked Watch, his voice was low as he dragged the knife to his neck.

"Don't you dare.." hissed Haknyeon between his gritting teeth.

"It will be so much fun" said Watch

"Hey you! Bring me the last boy!" ordered Watch to Giant who nodded in silent and quickly turned on his heels.

"No!" hitched Haknyeon and Watch put the knife away from his face.

"I will torture him and you will beg me to stop but I won't listen to you, not until I saw your friend looking lifeless..." whispered Watch right next to his ears.

For the first time since his blindfold was taken off, fear flashed clearly on his eyes. He was terrified of what the man would do to Mark.

It was all his fault, he should've just done what he asked him to do, beg.

Because of his choice, Mark had to pay the consequences instead.

"Leave my friends alone, please..." his tone became much softer.

"Why would I?" asked Watch before scoffing.

"Please..." cried Haknyeon

Haknyeon was really anxious at the thought of helplessly watching Mark being tortured right in front of his eyes. His fingers were fidgeting with the sides of his pants and he kept chewing his lips.

"Keep it up boy, you're almost good at it.. Begging" said Watch

The boy felt humiliated deep to his bones, something about psychological torture that left worse impact than physical ones.

_Until suddenly he heard a really loud popping sound._

His eyes widened fast, his jaw fell open, and his heart pounded really fast.

Everyone would knew what it was and he also watched enough movies to tell, that was the sound of a gunshot. The difference was he could feel the sound still ringing loudly inside his ear, refusing to disappear.

"What the hell?!!!" yelled Haknyeon at Watch. 

Watch stared at the door before at Haknyeon again, his expression was still well hidden under that black mask.

Then they heard another 'bang' again followed by one more then another one. 

It was a total of four bang before he heard nothing again. His mind immediately flew to his friends, his four friends on the other room.

_Did Boss finally decide to just kill them?_

"What are you doing to my friends!!" yelled Haknyeon in rage.

"Let me see them!!!" shouted Haknyeon

A sudden rush of adrenaline washed over him as he began to move without thinking, letting all the emotions taking over.

Haknyeon lunged at Watch in one move and the man seemed to be taken aback by the action but Haknyeon was too in rage at the thought that his friends could be dead by now.

He was aiming for the knife on Watch's hand, trying to snatch the knife out of his grip.

The boy was definitely weaker but people could surprise you if adrenaline was high on their system.

"What is it that you want from us!!!!" screamed Haknyeon, he didn't even consider the possibility of the man having a gun on him but after seeing that he didn't even make a move to pull out the gun maybe he in fact did not bring the gun to this room.

Maybe, finally, the luck was turning on his side.

They were struggling to take control of the knife, throwing punches, dodging, and all that. Haknyeon was looking like he could actually win the fight.

Until, Watch made a turn so that his back was pressing against Haknyeon's front. The man was able to pull the kinfe to his front and that meant Haknyeon's hands were hanging from Watch's right shoulder, still gripping the knife.

But Watch was a more skilled fighther than Haknyeon in the first place no matter what state Haknyeon was in.

With one jolt, Watch pulled the knife out from Haknyeon's grip then he ruthlessly stabbed it right on Haknyeon's left abdomen without even looking at the boy.

"Hahhh.."

Haknyeon gasped in pain as his body fell to the ground instantly, blood starting to flow out from the wound.

Watch took a look at him before leaving the room in hurry.

**Flashback**

Giant had just entered the room again fifteen minutes after he brought Haknyeon away.

Right now, he was waiting for Mark who was weakly putting the blindfold on.

Then they heard it, the very loud sound of something popping off.

Their heart missed a beat at that as one question came upon their minds.

Was Haknyeon okay?

Seconds later, they heard three more sound,

_**Bang** **Bang Bang** _

The terror was distinct on their eyes at the thought of Haknyeon being shot four times, did they decide to kill him in that way?

"What did you do to him?!!!" asked Jaehyun, he didn't care about the pain as he stood up, ready to find his best friend.

Wooyoung saw red, he had been holding himself back because of his friends safety but now, one of them could be dead already, drowning in the pool of his own blood.

So he didn't care anymore because that meant they would kill them all so why gave them the easy way?

Wooyoung moved to attack at Giant, he got some courage because he had learned martial arts before.

The reason he didn't use it was because he knew he wouldn't stand a chance against seven men with guns and he didn't want to risk their lives but now, Haknyeon could possibly dead already so,

All the fear just vanished

Giant was bigger and stronger than any of them but the man didn't see it coming, Wooyoung jumped on him and they both fell to the ground hard.

The others, who were witnessing it all, somehow got the courage too.

But it was easy for Giant to throw Wooyoung's body off him but then Jaehyun stroke at him too, he managed to give a punch to his face but it seemed like it didn't have much impact on the big guy.

Giant lifted Jaehyun's body instead and threw him to the side. Jaehyun's body hit the wall hard, it hurt that he gasped in pain but he didn't care about it.

Mark, who was close, tried to charge on him too but he was pushed back pretty easily by Giant.

They saw Giant backed away few feet before reaching for something in his pocket. 

It was a damn gun

"No!!" yelled Wooyoung

Giant was pointing it at Dino but Wooyoung was quick to run there, trying to pull the gun away or at least, to steer the aim to other way.

The man of course resisted but Wooyoung was persistant.

**End of Flashback**

Then exactly two screams of pain erupted.

Dino's and Wooyoung's, spesifically.

Why? 

Firstly, because right now Dino was in fact holding his freshly bleeding left arm. 

Giant had in fact fired the gun and Wooyoung was able to change the direction but it wasn't far enough.

No one heard the sound of the gunshot so it was really shocking.

The bullet had scarcth Dino's arm, on his upper arm to be exact. 

Secondly, when Wooyoung touch the gun, it was totally fine at first but when he saw a flash in front of his eyes, the gun started to feel hot.

Too hot actually that it burned his palm, Wooyoung was shocked too, he never thought that gun was supposed to be this hot.

But he didn't waver and with one jerk he knocked the gun out from his hand in which it flew to the other side of the room

When he glanced at his hand, there was a fresh burn mark there, not really big but it stinged.

It turned out that Wooyoung had accidentally grabbed the silencer part which definitely would become hot when the gun was fired.  
  
While he was staring at his palm, Giant was quick to kick Wooyoung chest and his body fell back.

Dino ignored his bleeding arm and charged on Giant too, he jumped on his back, trying to strangle the man.

And Mark, he helped Dino but even so, Giant was still too strong for them.

Giant grabbed Dino off his back with one arm and threw him to the wall before grabbing Mark and throwing him across the room.

Mark's body crashed against the wall very hard that he almost fainted.

This time, Wooyoung and Jaehyun tried to attack him again at the same time.

Jaehyun held Giant from behind while Wooyoung threw his punches and kicks.

It was effective until Giant slammed Jaehyun to the wall, his head first and as an impact, his forehead was bleeding a litte.

In the midst of the struggle Mark saw something, sitting on the corner as he realized what it was.

Jaehyun, Dino, and Wooyoung were ready to charge on him again when suddenly Giant fell to the ground hard.

The three were really shocked as they began to see blood flowing out from his abdomen, they actually couldn't really see it because the black color but they could definitely tell from the smell and the fact that the clothes was becoming damp slowly.

When they turned around, they saw Mark with a gun on both hands, Giant's gun that was tossed out from his hand, still pointed at Giant's direction while himself was frozen and shaking.

"Mark.." called Dino softly

"I.. I.. just..."

"You just save us.." said Dino as he kneeled down next to his friend.

The gun fell from Mark's shaking hands. "It's okay, you're okay" said Dino

"Guys, Haknyeon" said Jaehyun

"We have to find him, let's go" said Wooyoung

"Wait" said Wooyoung suddenly stopping

He quickly ripped his other sleeve and tied it to Dino's wound.

"You good?" asked Wooyoung

"Yes, I'm all good" said Dino

"Where should we go?" asked Jaehyun

"He might be in that room" said Dino as he helped Mark to stand, his blood stained Mark's clothes in the process.

"Let's go" said Jaehyun, "Can you walk Mark?" 

"Y..y.yes" stuttered Mark

"I'll help him, you two go first" said Dino, "Be careful, don't let them see you"

"Okay" said Wooyoung as he looked at Jaehyun.

Jaehyun and Wooyoung ran out from the room followed by Dino who was walking with Mark leaning heavily on him.

The gun was left behind because they didn't want to use it again.

Jaehyun saw the room for the first time for afar, the door was closed, brown door, slightly rotten. 

Without seconds thoughts, he slammed the door open only to be shocked all over again.

He found Haknyeon writhing while holding his abdomen, blood flowing out and turning the white clothes into red.

"Haknyeon ah!!" called Jaehyun

Haknyeon's head never turned so fast, "Jaehyun ah! You're.. You're alive... Thank God!" said Haknyeon in much relief

"I.. I thought they shot all of you" said Haknyeon as they hugged.

"We thought they shot you, four times" said Wooyoung, stressing the 'you' part.

"No they didn't" said Haknyeon as Jaehyun helped him to press the wound, "Watch.. stabbed me but.... the shots didn't come from here" said Haknyeom between his breath.

"Then what were those?" asked Jaehyun

"Let's worry about that later.. We need to leave this place now" said Wooyoung

Haknyeon wasn't looking good as his breath was starting to become raggy and he looked like he would passed out any seconds now.

They both helped Haknyeon up and swung each of his arms on their shoulders. "Hang on, Haknyeon ah" said Jaehyun

When they reached the hallway again, Mark and Dino arrived at the same time. Both were super glad to see Haknyeon still breathing.

None of them knew where the exit door was so they could do nothing else but look for it.

All five followed the hallway, trying to find the door while counting on their luck.

But guess luck wasn't on their side again as a smell of gasoline entered their noses.

The air was suddenly becoming uncomfortably hot and suffocating too.

There, they saw the red flame spreading before their eyes.

Only one logic explanation as for the why,

Their kidnappers burned the house.

"Let's go, hurry!!" rushed Wooyoung

They were trying their best to avoid the fire and to walk fast since they exactly couldn't run. The other scary thing was the falling woods from the ceilings, it was really hard to avoid those.

And there, they finally saw what they were looking for, the exit door. It was opened and they could see the outside view, so beautiful.

"Let's go!!" said Wooyoung, just a little more and they would get out from this cursed house.

"Wooyoung ah! Watch out!!" yelled Jaehyun as he pulled Wooyoung and Haknyeon back again just in time.

Had Jaehyun was a second late, Wooyoung would be crushed under the burning wood that fell from the ceilings and he would definitely be dead by now..

"Thank...you... J..Jae" said Wooyoung, still half-shocked.

"No!!" yelled Dino in despair

Right now, the exit, their only hope of getting out, was blocked entirely by the strong fire, there was no way that they could just jump over it.

"Let's look for another door or window" said Jaehyun

They tried to turn around, trying to find another way when the fire fell before them, blocking their the way again.

In short, they were trapped in that room. Fire was everywhere, not a single path that wasn't blocked by the burning flame.

Frustation, despair, named it all, those emotions were jumbled inside their body and minds.

They was about to give up.

"What... s..should... we...we do?" asked Haknyeon, struggling to speak.

"There has to be a way" said Wooyung, "We're getting out from here"

They were too close to give up.

He set Haknyeon down then he tried to pass the fire but he surely couldn't, it was too strong.

"Guys.. I love you all..." it came out as a whisper from Mark but they all heard it, just loud and clear.

"We're not giving up!!" said Wooyoung

"Wooyoung ah... There's no way out" said Jaehyun, crying

Wooyoung fell down to the floor, sobbing hard, "I don't wanna die"

"HELP US!!!!!!!" screamed Wooyoung at the top of his lungs

"Let's hold each other" said Dino, he was sobbing too, in fact, all of them were.

The five were sitting in the middle of that burning room, close with each other, literally hugging.

If they were about to die, at least they knew that they still have each other, that they died in each other's arms.

They were coughing as the smoke was starting to enter their lungs.

All five were about to faint from lack of oxygen when a familiar sound entered their hearings, followed by a loud but distant sound

.

.

.

To be continued

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everybody keep telling me that I'm a good writer and I literally cry out happiness so loud.
> 
> Thank you for saying that to me, it means a lot to me, more than you could imagine
> 
> I love you all so so so much 😘😘😘😘

**Author's Note:**

> Please kindly left comment and tell me what you're thinking about the story 😊😊😊


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